The fate of three men from disparate backgrounds comes together in an explosive climax. Johannes Sommer is a Nazi SS Standartenfuhrer and a methodical criminal, Yuri Orlov an Israeli Mossad agent of Russian background run amok and Robert Bunker an intelligent but unsophisticated rural chief of police in "Downeast" Maine. The events that form their lives and ultimately bring them together help to answer the question "Why". Why did the Holocaust occur? Why did it take so long to apprehend the guilty and why did many of the guilty escape completely?