The publication of this book, which was originally written in German, was prohibited by the Nazi Party in Germany. A young missionary serving in Germany, found and translated the love story into English and sought for a publisher in the United States. Despite the translator's letters to dozens of publishing houses, no English press would publish the book, so the English manuscript pages lay in a box in the United States for decades, nearly destroyed by a basement flood. The rescued document now informs and charms readers more than 100 years after the historical events of the First World War mainly set in occupied France.