The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Dempsey, Eoin. White Rose, Black Forest. Lake Union Publishing, 2018.

In the Black Forest Mountains of Germany, Franka Gerber walks in the snow with her father's revolver in her pocket, determined to die. Suddenly she finds an unconscious man named Werner Graf in the snow. He appears to be a Luftwaffe airman. Both his legs are both broken and Franka takes him back to her family's cabin. Werner screams in his sleep in English, not German - scaring Franka, who thinks he might be American or British. Franka resets Werner's bones properly in the cabin and hides his parachute under the floorboards.

Werner wakes up and tells Franka that he is on a spy mission but cannot say much more. They distrust each other. Franka goes into town to get painkillers and runs into her old boyfriend Daniel Berkel, now part of the Gestapo. Daniel congratulates Franka on receiving a lenient sentence from the judge after she came under the influence of an anti-Nazi group - the one her lover Hans was a part of. He drives her back to the cabin and Werner points a gun at Franka when she enters. The two talk and Franka administers the painkillers, telling Werner that she will hide him.

In a flashback, Franka tells Werner how she joined the German Girls and how her parents were concerned. She tells him about her relationship with Daniel and how she came to see the evil the Nazis did for what it is. She also tells Werner about meeting Hans and working with the White Rose organization against the Nazis in 1941. Franka tells of Hans' execution and her own escape with a light sentence of six months in jail because the Gestapo did not think such a pretty girl could be part of the leadership. Franka denounces the White Rose to save herself and shortly after her father is killed in an Allied bomb campaign.

A week later, Franka is finally ready to tell Werner about Fredi, her disabled brother and how the SS arrived and took him along with others away, as part of Hitler's plan to get rid of "useless eaters" (159). After hearing her story, Werner confesses that he is actually John Lynch from Philadelphia and how he went from decorated soldier to secret spy. His mission went awry when German gunnery hits his spy plane, forcing him to jump much sooner than anticipated and at a lower altitude, resulting in his broken legs. John asks Franka to meet his target, a scientist named Robert Hahn in Stuttgart in his place and tell him what happened. Franka goes into town and gets a pair of crutches but also accidentally raises suspicions that get her reported tot he Gestapo. Franka and John grow closer over the next two weeks.

Franka meets Hahn in Stuttgart a few days laters and Hahn says he wants to smuggle his ex-wife out with them too. During an air raid, Hahn is killed and Franka finds the documents he was going to give John in his nearby apartment. She makes it back to the cabin and tells John what happened. At the Gestapo office, Daniel gets Martina's report on Franka and goes to her cabin. He tries to sexually assault Franka but John bursts in from his hiding place under the floorboards. Franka manages to shoot and kill Daniel.

Franka and John decide to head to her Uncle Hermann's house, which is on the way to Switzerland. They hide Daniel's body under the floorboards and Franka tells her uncle that she got lost hiking while John hides in a bedroom. Another Gestapo agent Armin Vogel finds Daniel's body and tracks Franka and John down after uncle Hermann's neighbor reports suspicions. Vogel shoots Uncle Hermann and catches up to John and Franka. John escapes down a cliff after Franka asks him to save himself, after kissing her.

She is captured and soon after John returns, dressed in his Luftwaffe uniform and poses as a stranded pilot. In the transporting truck he gets the four guards laughing as a distraction before killing them all, including Vogel. John is wounded and Franka carries him over the border to Switzerland.

In a flash forward to Switzerland in 1945 the reader learns that Franka is fine and ready to return to Germany since the war just ended. She succeeded in finishing John's mission and John miraculously survived his wounds. Just as she packs her things, Franka hears a voice and turns to see John, finally returning to her after all these months. They embrace and promise to stay together forever.