Stephen remembers. He remembers the story of the white stag. He remembers the night when AVO guards took his father away. Eight long years of Communist rule. Eight long years without his father. Now a revolution is stirring in Hungary to drive out the Communists, and fourteen-year-old Stephen is caught in the thick of it. Student protestors are under attack. Grenades are exploding in the streets. Russian tanks are invading the city of Budapest to crush the uprising. Stephen joins the Resistance. He has never fired a gun before, but now he has a rifle in his hands. When he sees his close friend under fire, Stephen must decide what to do. Will he use the gun? Does the Resistance even stand a chance? Will Stephen ever know a Hungary that is free, or will he and his family have to escape to find freedom? And what will be the price? The real-life escape of Helen Szablya's own family from Communist Hungary in 1956 inspired the dramatic events told here with accuracy and feeling. Stephen's spellbinding story speaks to the universal struggle for freedom--then and now.