Stories of Elke McKee's WWII German soldier father who was captured and spent ten years as a Russian prisoner, his impression of the kind Russian peasants, the cruel guards, and surviving unbelievably hard conditions. She first meets her dad at age eleven reuniting with his wife in 1955. He recovers from prison despite resulting physical impairments, adapts to home life, and is rehired with seniority at the German government job he held sixteen years ago. Their lives improve. Elke ultimately moves to the US where this biography concludes.