Ken Follett's magnificent historical epic follows the journey of five families throughout the 20th century...

In the second book of the series, Follett's heroes - and with them all of humanity - enter an era of immense turmoil, beginning with the rise of the Third Reich, continuing with the Spanish Civil War and World War II, and ending with the dropping of the atomic bomb and the onset of the Cold War.

German Carla von Ulrich, as the tide of Nazism sweeps over the country, performs an act of incredible courage... The American Dewar brothers take different paths in the face of world-changing events, one in Washington, the other in the jungles of the Pacific... English student Lloyd Williams throws himself into the fire of the Spanish Civil War... American Daisy Peshkov, who is only interested in climbing the social ladder, sees the war radically change her life. Meanwhile, in the Soviet Union, her cousin Volodya gains a position in the secret services that will affect not only this war but the next one as well...

From the salons of the rich to the blood-soaked battlefields, their lives become inextricably intertwined with each other and with the great, dramatic events of a harsh, dark era that Follett aptly calls the "Winter of the World"...