She became pregnant by him shortly after their marriage. Later, she hid in the forest with Polish partisans, fighting the Nazis, and married The Avenger, whom Josef was also in love with. In reality, during this period of time, 320,000 were killed in Chelmno via the method of gassing them in trucks. Josef revives her through mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, which the woman, (who is later called KSIĘŻNICZKA, which means 'princess' in Polish) refers to in her fairy tale as 'the kiss of life'. When the bodies are dumped one of the partisans, named The Avenger notices that a woman with red hair (Gemma) is still alive and faintly breathing. The people are then dumped into the grave. By the time the trucks arrive at their destination, a mass grave, all of the people it was carrying have been gassed to death by the truck exhaust. The trucks drive away, with their exhaust funnelled into the passenger hold. The people are brought to the camp and then packed into trucks. This leads him to Chełmno (called Kulmhof by the Germans), where he witnesses the gassing to death of numerous people. He had heard stories of torture and extermination camps and joined an underground group set out to rescue victims. He was a target of the Holocaust due to his homosexuality, and became a fugitive, during which time he met many different people, mainly partisans, mainly in Germany. In the book, his story is told in the 'castle' section.

In Poland, Josef tells his life story and his meeting with Gemma. Becca sets off for Poland to find the identity and the life of her grandmother. She decides to visit Chełmno and discovers a link with a man by the name of Josef Potocki in Poland. She discovers that her grandmother was actually a survivor of the Holocaust who was persecuted for her Jewish origins, and sent to Chełmno extermination camp to be executed.

She consults Stan, a good friend and journalist who works for an 'alternative' newspaper and uncovers historical facts. After her grandmother's death, Rebecca Berlin, the youngest of her three granddaughters (referred to as Becca in the novel) begins to believe that there is some meaning behind the bedtime story that her grandmother told to them hundreds of times.

In the present day, Gemma's Jewish family is living somewhere outside a city in Massachusetts. The times when 'Gemma' tells the story are flashbacks and alternate between the present-day story. She tells this to the children almost all the time and it is the only bedtime story she ever tells. The story is based around the German fairy tale of Briar Rose ( Sleeping Beauty ) which is told by 'Gemma', an elderly woman, to her three granddaughters. The ending is part of the 'home' section, returning after the castle. The book is divided into two parts, the 'home', and the 'castle'.

Briar rose jane yolen summary