Told from the perspectives of three characters, Torch explores the devastating impact of a totalitarian regime and the different ways young people carve out futures for themselves against impossible odds

When 17-year-old Pavol fatally sets himself on fire in Prague in 1969 to protest the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, he leaves behind three friends whose lives are changed forever. Stepan must conceal his sexual orientation from a government that’s already suspicious of him. Tomáš faces judgment for his own unacceptable “abnormality” (which today would be identified as Asperger’s syndrome). And Lida is pregnant with Pavol’s child, branding her a traitor by association.

In the aftermath of Pavol’s death, all three must decide whether to keep struggling to survive in the country Pavol died hoping to save. . . or try to escape, together, in search of a better life.