A young man wakes up next to a dead woman who is covered with blood. The victim is lying on his bed and the murder weapon is in his hand. He immediately becomes the primary suspect in the woman"s slaying, although he insists that he knows neither the woman nor how she came to be in his bed. The path to solving the mystery follows a winding course through time and space, Important scenes occur in Linz, Austria in 1991, Prague in 1968, the Nazi concentration camp at Terezin during World War II, and a psychiatric ward in Moscow in 1991. The major characters range from the police inspector and his suspect to ruthless villains, helpless victims, a shyster lawyer, and a KGB hit man, all of whom are involved in a complex story line dealing with terrible family secrets, diabolical genetic research projects, a love affair that has gone sour, and crimes with international repercussions. The result is a powerful portrait of the psychology of violence.