February 1941, wartime Berlin. Brilliant, idealistic young detective Georg Heuser joins the Murder Squad in the midst of the biggest manhunt the city has ever seen. July 1959, peacetime West Germany: Paula Siebert is the sole woman in a federal unit investigating men who have committed crimes of unimaginable magnitude and horror. Their leader has just been arrested. His name is Georg Heuser. Siebert is sure of his guilt. But one question haunts her: how could a once decent man have become a sadistic monster? The answer lies in the desolate wastes of the Russian Front, the vast landmass conquered by Hitler's forces... the new empire the Nazis call Ostland.
