[Dev-C++] recursion help

[Richard G. <use...@ya...>]

Hi,

I am working my way through Sams Teach yourself c++ in 21 days and am 
having a bit fof difficulty with recursion, could someone explain to me 
how the following oiece of code works:

#ifdef HAVE_CONFIG_H
#include <config.h>
#endif

#include <iostream>
#include <cstdlib>

using namespace std;

int toPowerOf( int , int );
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    int powerOf, number, result;
    cout << "\nEnter the number: ";
    cin >> number;
    cout << "\nEnter the exponential: ";
    cin >> powerOf;
   
    result = toPowerOf( number, powerOf );
   
    cout << "\nThe result of " << number << "  to the power of " << 
powerOf << " is " << result << endl;
   
    return 0;
}
int toPowerOf( int number, int powerOf )
{
     if ( powerOf == 1 )
        return number;
     else
    {
        cout << "number is: " << number << " and the power of is " << 
powerOf << endl;
        return ( number  * toPowerOf( number, powerOf - 1 ));
    }
   }

If someone could explain how the recusion side workd I would be 
gratefull, as I don't seem to be getting anywhere.

Thanks a lot

Richard G.