American combat pilot Col. Joseph Ryan (Sinatra) is shot down over Nazi-controlled Italy and joins U.S. and English WWII troops in a prison camp during the summer of 1943. Given the insulting nickname "Von Ryan" because he initially seems more concerned with surviving than escaping, the colonel eventually leads Allied prisoners, as their new top ranking officer, in a daredevil race for freedom by commandeering an entire German freight train bound...

Spring has sprung in Crozet, Virginia -- a time for old friends to gather and bid farewell to the doldrums of winter. Harry and her husband, Fair, are enjoying a cozy dinner with some of the town's leading citizens, including beloved University of Virginia history professor Greg "Ginger" McConnell and several members of UVA's celebrated 1959 football team. But beneath the cloak of conviviality lurks a sinister specter from the distant past that threatens...