River of Ghosts is the true story of Yugoslav athlete Isak Gaši who survives internment in a prison camp during the Bosnian War. The story includes personal conflict between Isak and his Communist ex-policeman of a father (who killed for the Communists), along with the broad scale conflict of a war where neighbors turn into enemies defined by ethnicity. Isak is of Bosnian Muslim heritage. Although he never practiced the Islam religion, Isak was grouped together with those who did during the Bosnian War (as were people of Jewish descent were during the WWII). Like the Jews of WWII, Bosnian Muslims were the target of genocide. Isak was arrested and interred in a prison camp. His best friends are Olympic gold medalists, a Serb and a Croat. Isak is on the Yugoslav Olympic team as well, but his outspokenness angers the Communist leadership, and he is stopped from Olympic competition. Isak falls in love with Jasminka, a beautiful strong-willed woman who initially wants nothing to do with him, which makes him want her even more. Isak woos her, wins her over, and they marry. After Yugoslavia begins to break apart. Isak is arrested because he is Bosnian Muslim and thrown into Luka prison camp. He is beaten, witness to torture and killings, and is forced to dispose of the bodies of murdered Bosnians. After twelve days in prison, he is scheduled for execution. When a paramilitary red beret officer arrives at the Luka Prison Camp and takes Isak away, he is certain that he’s about to be executed. He endures a harrowing journey that includes driving past the mass grave of genocide victims, and stopping at a Serb paramilitary compound crawling with enemy soldiers. What he doesn’t know is that forty-eight hours before his scheduled execution a sympathetic Serb prison guard contacts Mirko Nišović, Serb Olympic gold medalist and Isak’s close friend. The guard gives Mirko information to find the only man who can save Isak’s life, a Serb paramilitary commander named Dragan Vasiljković, known as Captain Dragan. Mirko’s Olympic fame gets them in the door to see Dragan, but it’s Jasminka’s extraordinary courage that convinces Dragan to release her husband. Dragan is enthralled with her gutsy approach, and orders Isak freed. Isak is taken to Belgrade where he joins his wife and baby daughter, but he remains outspoken and tells his story to a diplomat at the United States Embassy and to American journalists. Consequently, the Serbs go after him again, putting him on the Interpol Wanted list, and he is forced to flee for his life. Isak and his family become refugees in Denmark, and eventually Danish citizens, before moving to the United States.