The characters in A Night in Distant Motion are ordinary people whose ranks include farmers, soldiers, students, and workers. On one level, the differences between them hold no importance—all lead difficult lives, hounded by the possibility of death— but on another level they are profound.

Those with courage enough to see past the differences of race will, as Jan says, "lay a path." Not all the main characters do this.

Regine Martens, the seventeen-year-old narrator of the story, is honest, open, and also a loyal follower of Adolph Hitler and the Nazi Party, "a regular Girls' League Bitch" as Gertrud originally calls her. Raised upon her parents' stories of her father's success because of his party membership, she believes in the truth and honor of the Third Reich until she encounters Jan, a Polish prisoner. Finding him as human as any...