While probing Nazi supply routes around the recently fallen city of Kiev, Misha, a Soviet intelligence officer, witnesses the aftermath of the mass murder of Jews at Babi Yar. Convinced that the Nazis intend to exterminate all of European Jewry, Misha, a Jew, resolves to travel from the depths of wintry Ukraine to Nazi-occupied Poland, where his family lives. As it relates Misha's punishing, 600-mile journey to reach his family in time, Unwilling Survivor paints a portrait of one man's commitment to his principles as well as the indomitability of the human spirit. This is the first part of the story of the family of author Michael Kopiec.