In April 1945, two dead German soldiers are brought into the church in the village of Hildrizhausen. In November 1999, Martin Slater discovers some old letters in the attic of his house in Berkshire, England. The letters suggest that Martin's mother had contacted a priest in Hildrizhausen in the 1960s. Why had she done this? What is the connection between these letters and the two dead soldiers? Martin's efforts to find the answers bring him to Germany. Here he finds himself involved with murder, with forbidden love and with a recent history that reminds him that even when people might want to forget, the past will never let them go.