As a young Jewish surgeon at the university hospital in Lwow, Eastern Poland (currently Western Ukraine), Isaac Vogelfanger joined the Red Army after Hitler attacked Russia in 1941, believing it would be the safest haven from the Nazi threat. He was assigned to a major military hospital in Northern Ural as chief surgeon, a prestigious position.

But his life changed drastically when he was suddenly arrested, convicted as an enemy of the Soviet Union, and sentenced to eight years in a gulag for crimes ha had not committed. During the years he spent in prison camps, Isaac Vogelfanger witnessed Stalin's mass death factory at first hand. Despite his medical skills, he was unable to help the many inmates who died from forced labour, starvation, and cold.

Vogelfanger's account is full of pain and suffering, both his own and that of his fellow prisoners, but his story is suffused with love and admiration for the Russian people who risked their lives to help him from no other motive than genuine goodness. Red Tempest is a moving testament to the strength of the human spirit and humanity in the face of death and despair.