This book is a fictional account of SS officer Josef Bulow, the only child of a German soldier killed during World War I. Raised by his militaristic grandfather, the young Bulow was introduced to Nazi ideology at a very early age. After joining the party in his early teens, he quickly rose in the ranks in the pre-war years. Bulow was the stereotypical strong, blond-haired, blue-eyed poster child for the master race. By all accounts, he was the perfect Naziaexcept for the dark secret he held. Secretly married to a Jewish woman before the start of the war, Josef sent her to what he felt was the safety of Poland in the summer of 1939. Longing for a front line assignment to avenge his fatheras death in the First War, Bulow marked time as the commander of a labor camp in southwest Germany and befriended a Jewish prisoner who bore a startling resemblance to his wife. Always in conflict with himself, Bulow tried to do his duty to his uniform, his wife and the memory of his father. His desire to be the perfect Nazi drove him to utter madness as he discovered that he was unable to have it all.