Part biography, part political thriller, part scholarly detective story that draws on letters, diary entries, notes smuggled out of a Berlin prison, and other documents, this true story chronicles the life and brutal death of Mildred Harnack, the American leader of one of the largest underground resistance groups in Germany. Mildred Harnack was twenty-six when she enrolled in a PhD program in Germany and witnessed the meteoric rise of the Nazi party. In 1932, she began holding secret meetings with a small band of political activists that by 1940 had grown into the largest underground resistance group in Berlin. When the first shots of the Second World War were fired she became a spy, couriering top-secret intelligence to the Allies. On the eve of her escape to Sweden, she was ambushed by the Gestapo. At a Nazi military court she was sentenced to six years at a prison camp, but Hitler overruled the decision and ordered her execution. On February 16, 1943, she was strapped to a guillotine and beheaded. Harnack's great-great-niece Rebecca Donner draws on archival research in Germany, Russia, England, and the U.S. as well as newly uncovered documents in her family archive to reconstruct the moral courage of an enigmatic woman nearly erased by history. -- Adapted from dust jacket

The boy with the blue knapsack (1939) -- I (1902-1933). We ust change this situation as soon as possible -- Yankee Doodle Dandy -- Good morning, sunshine -- The BAG -- II (1933-1934) -- Fragment -- Chancellor Hitler -- Two Nazi ministers -- A whisper, a nod -- The people's radio -- The Reichstag fire -- An act of sabotage -- Mildred's recruits -- Tumbling like dominos -- Torched -- Dietrich does battle with the Aryan clause -- Arvid burns his own book -- III (1938-1939). American in Berlin -- Don't dowdle -- IV (1933-1935) -- The proper care of cactus plants -- Fair bright transparent -- Two kinds of parties -- Bugged -- Esthonia, and other imaginary women -- Arvid gets a job -- Thieves, forgers, liars, traitors -- Rudolf Ditzen, aka Hans Fallada -- The night of the long knives -- V (1939). A Molekül and other small things -- The Kansas Jack gang -- VI (1935-1937). Fragment -- A new strategy -- Bye-bye, Treaty of Versailles -- Tommy -- Monkey business -- Rindersteak Nazi -- An old pal from ARPLAN -- Spies among us -- Beheadings are back -- Ernst and Ernst -- Identity crisis -- VI (1937-1939). Homecoming -- Georgina's tremors, big and small -- Jane in love -- My little girl -- A circle within the circle -- A child, almost -- Stalin and the dwarf -- Boris's last letter -- Seeking allies -- VIII (1937-1940) -- Morgenthau's man -- Joy ride -- Lunch before kristallnacht -- Getting to be pretty good -- A fateful decision -- Air raid -- Louise Heath's diary -- Mamzelle and Mildred and mole -- IX (1940-1942). Fragment -- Foreign excellent trench coats -- Corsican drops a bombshell -- Libs and Mildred among the cups and spoons -- AGIS and other agitations -- Zoya Ivanovna Rybkina's eleven-page table -- Stalin's obsecenity -- Hans Coppi's first message -- Anatoly Gurevich, aka Kent, aka Vincente Sieraa, aka Victor Sukolov -- Code red -- A single error -- Gollnow -- One pain among so many -- Oil in the Caucasus -- X (1942-1945). Fragment -- Arrest -- Gestapo album -- Knock-knock -- Falk does his best -- Wolfgang's seventh interrogation -- Dassiber -- The Red Orchestra is neither red nor particularly musical -- Anneliese and witch bones -- Hitler's bloodhount -- The first of many trials -- Mildred's cellmate -- The greatest bit of bad luck -- The armband she wore -- The Mannhardt guillotine -- All the frequent troubles of our days -- Stieve's list -- The final solution -- Gertrud -- XI (1942-1952). Harriette's rage -- Valkyrie -- Recruited -- By chance -- Arvid's letter -- XII (1946). Don goes back.