Donald Himelstein takes his readers on a whirlwind tour from Nazi Germany to the Caribbean in his tale of romantic intrigue and powerful men grappling for control and revenge. In this poverty to riches story, Rachel Steinman emerges from a young Jewish Fraulein, desperate to escape the wrath of the Nazis, to become a superstar radio hostess and wealthy matron in a new land. Her story becomes one of Life's great lessons, while she rules her family with a strong will and firm hand until she realizes that true love really does conquer all.
In 1939, a group of 600 desperate European Jews gathered aboard a rickety ship hoping to escape from Nazi Germany. Rachel Steinman and six other women are forced to attend a Nazi SS officer's party where she encounters Rudy Reinhardt, an ambitious dedicated officer. The next day, after a night of drinking and sexual abuse, the women are returned to the ship, and the group is given clearance to leave, never suspecting that years later they would meet their captors again. The refugees find a safe haven in the port of Puerta Plata in the Dominican Republic where they struggle successfully to gain a foothold in this strange country. Rachel gives birth to Bernado, the baby conceived after the rage by Reinhardt.
Rudy finds refuge after the war in the Dominican Republic. With sheer old world determination he builds an embire of land holdings and cattle on the slave labor of the friendly Dominicans, unaware that his past is about to catch up with him as his lovely daughter Greta fails in love with Rachel'ls youngest son Diego.
