Berlin, Germany Two loves rule Viktoria Jochum-Kraus's life. One is the Hotel Quadriga, built by her father, opened on the day she was born and, in January 1933, the most luxurious hotel in Berlin. The other is her son, Stefan. Only Viktoria knows that Stefan is the result of a youthful infatuation with her husband's cousin, Count Peter von Biederstein. Independent and strong-minded, Viktoria has for many years run the Hotel Quadriga with her husband Benno. But as Hitler's stormtroopers march beneath the Brandenburg Gate, heralding the beginning of the Third Reich, Viktoria soon realizes that she no longer controls her own destiny. Not only is she forced to relinquish her hold over the hotel under the brutal Nazi regime, but Stefan embarks upon a fateful love affair which she alone knows can only end in heartbreak. As war wreaks its fearful devastation--on the city and on the people she loves--all that Viktoria holds most dear is threatened . . . Will Viktoria's carefully guarded secret be discovered? Can Berlin and its inhabitants survive the horrors of war? As families are torn apart and lives destroyed, will loved ones be separated forever?