Rebecca Donner begins the book with this sentence: "This is a work of nonfiction. It is the biography of Mildred Harnack who, as the subtitle says, is an American in the German resistance against Hitler. The author, a descendant of Mildred Harnack, has historically reconstructed, with scientific accuracy, her life and other people's lives (such as the famous Operation Valkyrie bombing) trying to stop Hitler. It is therefore a biography, but with the interest of a thriller novel. The title is the first line of a poem that her husband secretly sends her when they are both being interrogated by the Gestapo. It contains some harsh scenes as she relates those interrogations and some events in the Nazi death camps. Mildred Harnack and her husband are an exemplary and heroic married couple, even if they have to collaborate with the Soviet espionage apparatus.