Toma Ivanian returns to Berlin because his parents believe that Orthodox Christianity in Bulgaria will suffer the same fate as in Russia. He returns to Berlin to work for the water department. He's suffering from what his former teacher in Bulgaria called systemic shock. He keeps the secret told to him by an SS officer. He can't tell anyone in Berlin that "Germany has already been defeated." He avoids conscription when the Induction Center is bombed with a blockbuster bomb by the R.A.F. Berliners find a way for Ivanian to take a train to Munich in late December 1944. Hiding in a bakery in Freising, he waits for the American army.