John Petersen is a war-weary Army lieutenant assigned to guard the highest-ranking survivors of Hitler's Third Reich at the Nuremberg trials. Petersen has two primary jobs: first to keep Hermann Goering, Hitler's number two man, alive until he can be tried and hanged; and second, to keep his mercurial commanding officer, Douglas Gaffner, happy. These tasks don't always go hand-in-hand.

A combat veteran, Petersen has a lot to learn about post-war life. He never imagines that his friendship with Robert Simmons, an unrepentant trader on Nuremburg's black market, will lead to tragedy. He never guesses that his affair with housekeeper Lisbeth Bichler will end in betrayal and heartbreak. He never imagines his wary friendship with Goering will jeopardize his standing with Gaffner. He doesn't realize until too late the lengths to which Goering will go to cheat the hangman and deny the allies their final revenge.

Set at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremburg, Germany, the story follows Petersen from the battlefields of World War II to the clandestine conflicts of the Cold War and into a shadowy, new world where intrigue, romance, and a thriving Black Market intersect with the ripening conflict between East and West.