A contemporary saga of modern America, this is a story of love – for a family, for a cause, for a faith

Vera Mueller is forced to flee Berlin in 1938 when her family is destroyed in the aftermath of Kristallnacht. Finding safety of a sort in Blitz-shattered London, she becomes a language tutor and so meets Paul Kahn, an American airman. Their instant attraction grows into deep, passionate love and, not knowing what time they might have together, they marry.

Vera thinks her dreams have come true when Paul survives his mission and she joins him in his upstate New York hometown. She has gained a family, of her own Jewish faith. She has traded poverty for comfort – the Kahns have been gunsmiths for generations, and the war has increased their fortune. But Paul hates guns, and will have nothing to do with the business. ‘Guns don’t kill,’ Vera insists. ‘People kill.’

Vera’s own commercial acumen is a great asset to the company. Yet she cannot ignore Paul’s point of view when tragedy strikes them directly. Through the years of the Korean crisis and the Vietnam war to the growing call for gun control, Vera must balance the security of her family’s finances against increasing opposition; from her children and from Paul, her own passionate obsession.