Alexandre Barbosa is the scion of a wealthy Brazilian family that lives grandly and gambles for high stakes. His father has just lost the family’s vast coffee plantation in a poker game. But the loss of his patrimony isn’t Alexandre’s most serious problem. He feels honor-bound, even at the risk of his life, to take an active part in opposing the military dictatorship that has ruled Brazil for five years. His patriotism comes into conflict with everything he has planned for his future. In 1969, while still a university student in Rio de Janeiro studying to become an architect, he joins the Armed Resistance. As the result of their militant activities, he and his lover Monica, a fellow architecture student, jeopardize their careers and their commitments to each other as their lives take dangerous and surprising turns in Brazil, Chile and the United States. Roa Lynn was born and raised in Toledo, Ohio. She has lived in Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Salt Lake City, New York and Washington, D.C. She has been a print and television journalist and a government administrator and has written about Brazilian history, economics and culture for the Brazilian Embassy in Washington, D.C. In recognition of these writings she was decorated in 1997 with the Order of Rio Branco by the Brazilian government.