An Unplanned Roundtrip recounts author Arthur O. Klein's transition from life in a middle class Jewish home in prewar 1930s Vienna to a new life as an American citizen after serving in the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps in 1947. Beginning with the entry of Adolf Hitler into Vienna in March 1938, Klein's memoir details the subsequent separation of his family in August 1938 as he and his father were forced to leave his mother and sister and flee to Luxembourg and their eventual reunion in September 1939. Klein describes moving through France, Spain, Portugal and Cuba before arriving in the U.S. in early 1945, where he was immediately drafted into the U.S. Army. His memoir includes a description of his training as a Special Agent of the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps and of his eventual discharge after a serious car accident in West Germany in December 1946.