Phillipa Kohn's personal ego and strength that enabled her to control all the people around her convinced this daughter of wealthy Jewish parents that she could control her political environment in Germany as well. Then came Hitler and Nazism and World War II. Her marriage to weak Walter Penmann, a non-Jewish university professor, a union of convenience and occasional manipulative sex for her and adoring frustration for him, protected her for a while. When she is ultimately sent to a concentration camp, Walter goes off to join the anti-Nazi resistance. The horrors of the camps for her, the dangerous adventures for him, the self-discoveries of both, including all-encompassing sex that they could not find with each other, mark the dramatic changes for them and in the lives and deaths of other unforgettable characters, set against a warning of personal and public complacency that is as meaningful today as it was at that time.