A true saga that tells of the flight of Paul, his wife Sophia and two young daughters, Tamara, and Isa from their beautiful Black Sea home in Odesa. He is a wealthy farm-estate owner and holds the sole Mercedes agency for south Russia. The invasion of Russia by Germany in 1914, followed by the Russian revolution in 1919 means they lose everything. In Spring 1919 Lenin announces the Red Terror. This aims at the extermination of all bourgeoisie. Paul and family must flee for their lives. They escape Odesa and, with other family members and refugees, trek from village to village, disguised as peasants, with the CheKa close behind. The CheKa summarily executes Paul's older brother in his cellar as a 'capitalist and landowner.' Tamara and Isa, peeping through window shutters, witness the bloody murder of a Bolshevik requisitioning unit by frustrated villagers, angry at the thieving of their livestock and grain. Paul fights with those villagers in the subsequent battle against the Red reprisal forces sent to exact revenge, to kill and to destroy homes and farms. Both Paul, alone and the family, together face death many times. What subterfuges can they use? Can all escape, and how? As the family runs and hides, there are nostalgic flashbacks by the girls of the happy, peaceful life they once knew.