The war that had brought them together was now pulling them apart. Would they forever be scattered like—Bread Upon the Waters? German by nationality, Polish by allegiance. Hanna Muller is involved with her family in the dangerous business of working for the Nazis while helping her Polish neighbors. Tadeusz Piekarz is a young engineer, a Polish prisoner forced to labor for the Germans in Hanna's father's firm. Their growing love surprises them both and brings them improbable joy in German-occupied Krakow. Jacek Duch is an American spy, a perpetual lost soul working under deep cover in occupied Poland. During the war, he has managed to construct a life based on an intricate web of loyalties to his American "handlers," to his Polish comrades, and to the beautiful women he leaves behind. But then the tide of war turns, and Soviet soldiers advance savagely over the same territory the Nazis have held in an iron grip. Hanna and her mother must flee for their lives, and Tadeusz must face the Soviets with his crippled father-in-law, now branded as a Nazi collaborator. Torn by events they can't control but bound by love and faith, they struggle against all odds to survive, to find each other again. And again and again, through it all, they find their lives strangely intertwined with the American spy who comes to find himself in the cause of Polish liberty only to lose himself again.

Two families whose fates are intertwined in a land and a time. . . Trucks with loudspeakers had boldly proclaimed the glorious liberation of Poland from the Nazis. But the so-called liberation by the Soviets only spreads the trail of horror as Stalinism entrenches itself in Poland. The initial hope of rebuilding a country out of the war rubble is met with the dawning realization that things are not as they seem under the Russians' rule. Torn apart by war but bound by love and faith, Hanna and Tadeusz Piekarz had struggled against all the odds to survive, to find each other again. Their two boys, Jasiu and Piotr, grow up under the crushing weight of persecution. One son follows his parents' faith, while the other rebels and gets involved in the underground, helping to organize workers' strikes. Meanwhile, the daughter of Jacek Duch, the American spy who is deeply rooted in the Communist government, comes to Poland in secret search of her father and meets the Piekarz family. When she comes to love both these brothers, as different as night and day, how can she choose? And will she ever find her father?

When the Nazis retreated from postwar Poland, the Soviets only spread the existing terror as Stalinism entrenched itself. The Piekarz family has survived the crushing weight of persecution, and Piotr Piekarz is now a leader among the Solidarity movement in Gdansk, helping to lead the fight against the government during martial law. Wanted by the secret police, he is finally arrested and thrown into prison. Piotr's nephew Tomasz, drawn by the promise of Western materialism, runs away to Berlin and ends up living in desperate conditions on the streets. His return to Poland and involvement in a riot against the communists leads to a dramatic confrontation with his grandfather, the American spy, Jacek. Finally, Jacek must come to terms with the legion of ghosts that haunt his past and torment his life. Can a man who has betrayed himself with good intentions find redemption through coming to understand what is truly important? Will a family's heritage of enduring faith and love be enough to heal the scars they did not mean to inflict on their children, along with the scars of a repressive government?