In the spring of 1957, Jacob Versteeg is graduating from high school at the top of his class. Quite an accomplishment for a guy who spent his young childhood in a German concentration camp. When the war ended, he was adopted by Huub Versteeg, a kind fellow POW at Bergen-Belsen who had taken him under his wing. For ten years Jacob grew up in Chicago surrounded by the love of his new family, including Danny and Anya McClain and their two young children. In fact, he has thrived.

But Jacob still struggles to understand the void left in his heart by his German parents who discarded him at the doorstep of war. After his first year at Wheaton College, Jacob joins a summer study course in West Germany. There, he realizes he must gather his courage to overcome his past if he's ever to complete his long journey from war.