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 Caf? 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?