Chapter 4: I think of Ulrike this night in November and Chapter 5: On Doing Laundry Summary and Analysis

Chapter 4 introduces Ulrike, a twenty-seven year old East German woman. She is uninterested in discussing her escape from East Germany with Slavenka. Slavenka asks whether one can ever really escape the communist mindset. Before continuing, Slavenka relates Ulrike's story as told by their mutual friend, a Western German woman named Christianne. Ulrike and a friend try to escape but are caught and sent to prison at the Romanian-Yugoslav border; Ulrike spends a year there and loses all of her hair. Deported eventually to East Germany, Ulrike is again sent to prison; her family is forced to renounce her. But West Germany brings her out of East Germany and Ulrike starts to live in West Berlin...