In February 1945 at Ravensbrück, Isabelle endures freezing roll call beside piles of bodies and the smoke of the crematorium. An SS officer rides the ranks selecting women; Isabelle and Micheline are pulled out and marched beyond the gates, passing a lorry piled with naked corpses.

In a foggy field, the Germans separate the prisoners again and harness Isabelle with other Nacht und Nebel women to a heavy steel wheel for road work. Whipped to keep moving, Isabelle focuses only on taking one step at a time, collapsing and forcing herself back up as the wheel finally turns and the guards watch from warm fires.

By March 1945, Isabelle is feverish, emaciated, lice-ridden, and coughing, but she tries to keep other women steady, believing survival is now a race as rumors spread of Allied victories and Auschwitz’s liberation. At 3:30 A.M. roll call, the Kommandant orders Nacht und Nebel prisoners forward; Isabelle and Micheline are seized and told they are being sent to another camp. Terrified she will not survive, Isabelle falls in the snow and is pushed upright by Micheline before the guards notice.

Isabelle and the other women are forced to march for two days, covering thirty-five miles, sleeping in the cold and watching prisoners die along the route. They are crammed into foul cattle cars; Micheline finds Isabelle on a hay bale as Isabelle coughs blood and burns with fever. Bombs repeatedly halt the train, and each stop carries the threat of death from the air.

After four days, the doors open on another snowy camp where more prisoners have died in transit. As the SS screams for speed, Isabelle steps over bodies and witnesses an officer shoot a woman who falls. Entering the camp, Isabelle hears “Juliette” and is jolted into remembering her identities beyond her number; at the fence she recognizes Anouk, learns the Nazis are killing prisoners to hide their crimes, and hears that Henri was hanged and Paul and Gaëtan were arrested. Ordered away, Isabelle cannot even answer Anouk’s mouthed goodbye, overwhelmed by exhaustion and loss.