An assassination in Serbia sets off a series of events that draws the world into an ever-expanding vortex of madness. As mighty armies clash, entire populations must either flee their ancestral homes or be ground into dust. Akulina Boriskova Pribish and her two young sons are caught in the center of the madness and with the other villagers of Hutawa, Byelorussia must choose between death as warriors and life as refugees. Here is the saga of a people caught in the horrors of the Great War and the Russian Revolution. From the first heady days of victory, through humiliating defeats and the empty promises of revolution, their experiences mirror those of millions upon whose mighty shoulders future generations would rest.