Summary

In Chapter 1, nurse Franka Gerber heads into the Black Forest Mountains of Germany with her father's revolver in her pocket, determined to die. As she wonders where the best final resting place would be, she finds an unconscious man named Werner Graf in the snow. There are no footprints in the snow leading up to him and there is a parachute attached to him. Franka thinks he might be a Luftwaffe airman from Berlin, part of the army of the Nazi government she hates so much but she decides to help him anyway because she feels she has a duty to as a nurse. Franka tries to help the man, whose legs are both broken. With the nearest houses and villages too far for her to make it on her own with the dead weight of the unconscious Werner, Franka makes a snow...