The author was born and spent the first half of his life in Romania a country assigned to be behind the Iron Curtain and controlled by the Soviet Union. The book depicts how the country ended up behind the Iron Curtain and became a vassal of the Soviet Union and how the communist party became the only political force and controlled everything and everyone from cradle to the end. The author reviews his ancestors and shows the difference the Iron Curtain has made for each of his four-ancestor family. The story goes from childhood to adulthood and describes life through different steps in education and employment from a county hospital to cancer research institutes in Romania and the United States. The difference that communist party membership makes and the conflicts with Securitate, the secret police strong arm of the totalitarian regime are described trying to stay out of politics did not avoid permanent abuse by the totalitarian regime. Description of the author and his family breaking away from the Iron Curtain is a happy conclusion. Presentation of the horror of a totalitarian regime behind the Iron Curtain should prevent similar political events