"May 1945. Hitler is dead, and the Third Reich little more than smoking rubble. No GI wants to be the last man killed in action against the Nazis. But for cigar-chewing, rough-talking, hard-drinking, hard-charging Captain Jack Lee and his men, there is one more mission: rescue fourteen prominent French prisoners held in an SS-guarded castle high in the Austrian Alps. It's a dangerous mission, but Lee has help from a decorated German Wehrmacht officer...

When World War II "borrows" most of the men in Germany, 6-year old Gerda's family is allowed to borrow 3 French prisoners of war to help run their farm. They are supposed to treat them as enemies, but the family finds ways to show kindness and friendship. Based on the early childhood memories of the author's mother.