Misha

The war has affected the lives of the two protagonists: Misha and Alida. Misha is the son of a teenage mother, Blanche, a French Jewess, interned in a Lebensborn Nazi brothel. His father, a Polish Jew on leave from his Ukrainian SS unit, sires a bastard son. Alida is born in Havana, Cuba, of French-Jewish refugees who fled from the Nazi Vichy government. She reaches her teens as a talented ballerina. Misha earns a PhD degree in spite of his sadistic step-father and guilt-ridden mom. Further studies lead him to the U.S. Circumstances bring Misha and Alida together. They marry and take up residence in Urbana-Champaign. Soon, Alida gives birth to a premature baby son and, oddly, undergoes a radical hysterectomy. His lover Susanna joins Misha in the U.S. and complications develop. Months later, Susannaas body is recovered from a countryside lake, and Misha is the prime suspect in the first-degree murder trial.