* Berlin during the Second World War. In the center of the city an institute for psychotherapy headed by a relative of powerful Reich Marshal Hermann G?ring. The Institute assists the air force and the army in the war effort. But the dreaded black SS wants something from the Institute too. Colonel Edmund von Sch?del of Army Intelligence runs his own operation at the Institute, but his life is complicated not only by what he discovers about the SS but also by Emilie Trost, a young medical student with whom he falls in love. Emilie's own life?and her life with Edmund?are shadowed and then shattered by the fate of her Jewish friend Rachel. And by the deadly secret behind Edmund's presence at the Institute. In the chaos of defeat that descends upon the Third Reich, Berlin becomes the world's crucible for the most malevolent and destructive forces of modern tyranny and war.
Geoffrey Cocks is Royal G. Hall Professor of History at Albion College. He is the editor of "The Curve of Life: Correspondence of Heinz Kohut, "and the co-editor of "Medicine and Modernity "and "German Professions, 1800-1950."