The family drama begins in 2012. Vera, the protagonist, is terminally ill and burdened by her troubled past. Should she reveal all of her secrets to her family before she dies? She starts writing on her laptop once she is discharged from the hospital. She begins with the year 1945 when her father returns to Germany. His return changes her life forever. He routinely abuses her but her mother turns a blind eye. History repeats itself years later when someone in the family suffers the same fate. Vera vows to stop the vicious cycle once and for all. Astrid van der Star (1944) lives in Rotterdam. Her first book is an autobiography set in the late 1940s in war-torn Rotterdam. Her second book is about her bizarre experiences in a Rotterdam jail. She works as a social worker.