Caught between his Nazi father and the memory of his devout mother, Franz must make a life-defining choice.
December 1942: Wounded in Stalingrad, Wehrmacht officer Franz Maedler is on his way home to Berlin. Haunted by memories of the men he left behind and the suffering he witnessed on the Eastern Front, he is no longer certain of where he stands. He is pulled between his father—a devoted National Socialist—and the memory of his Christian mother, between his brother Friedrich in military intelligence and his Christian girlfriend, and between his army oath to Hitler and his confirmation oath to Christ.
He wants to marry Katrin Weber, but she needs him to decide who he is—and whom he follows. Then his world is turned upside-down when he faces a life-defining decision. Franz, Katrin, and Friedrich could lose everything. And they are not the only ones. Franz can no longer straddle the divide. Will he choose the swastika or the cross?
Pictures in banner from left to right: German military forces at Nuremberg Party Rally, 1936; German troops fighting in the streets of Stalingrad, 1942; Marienkirche, Central Berlin; German-language Bible