This story is set in Transylvania, Hungary, a region governed by Hungarian kings since the 10th Century. Transylvania became a pawn of world political maneuvers at the end of World War I with the Treaty of Trianon signed in Paris, 1920. A bitter tug-of-war ensued between Romania and Hungary throughout the first half of the20th century.
At the outset of this novel, Transylvanians have been under Romanian rule for some twenty years. As the story unfolds, boundaries are redrawn and Transylvanians become jubilant at being freed from Romanian control and back in the arms of their Hungarian motherland. Jubilation then turns to desperation as they fight to protect Transylvania from Russian invasion. Desperation turns to fear and defeat, first when the Eastern Bloc is created and followed by the 1956 Soviet Union invasion of Hungary to crush reforms.