Viktoria's family is divided as her country is divided . . .
Berlin, Germany: When Stefan Jochum returns from England to Berlin in August 1945, it is to find a city counting the cost of the Second World War. The Hotel Quadriga is in ruins, his father is dead and his sister, Monika, is living in the Soviet-occupied zone. Determined to survive despite unconquerable odds, his mother Viktoria ekes out an existence from the cellar of the Café Jochum.
While Stefan builds a reputation as a well-respected journalist, Viktoria determinedly sets about establishing a new chain of elegant hotels in the spirit of the Quadriga—a symbol of faith and hope in her country's future.
But as the new hotels rise from the rubble of war, so too do two rival Germanys—each haunted by the legacy of its Nazi past and imminently to be divided by the Berlin Wall.
On both sides of the Iron Curtain, the children of the post-war generation seek to atone for their parents' past mistakes and impose their own influence upon Germany's future.
Can a new generation learn from the mistakes of the past? Will Viktoria's family remain divided?
And what will the future hold for them all when the Berlin Wall finally falls?