His wife dead, his health fading, August Kleinman knows that his life is dwindling away. As he contemplates his fate, he mourns his beloved spouse, and relives his childhood in prewar Germany. His thoughts drift over his boyhood escape from the Nazis, his military service with the Allies, and his successful business career. But a single image absorbs this 78-year-old man more than all the rest: The face of one enemy soldier. A striking novel about reliving the past and attempting to repair it.