The murder of a United States congressman's son sends Inspector Simon Wolfe of the San Francisco Police Department on a pursuit in which he is blackmailed with his past as an Israeli assassin. When Inspector Wolfe falls in love with the dead boy's psychiatrist and must protect her from a rogue Nazi operative, he is forced to come to terms with his uncompromising notions of justice that were formed when he was a prisoner in Theresienstadt and Auschwitz. This gripping tale of murder and deceit interweaves history and mystery against the charged and colorful background of Berkeley in the 1960's. Wolfe is a difficult and sympathetic character who relentlessly pursues the truth in a time of desperate optimism. This is more than just a story of good versus evil; it satisfies the genre and then slips its boundaries to provide readers with a deeper understanding of the the law and the pitfalls of love.