In 1945 the Allied forces are trekking across Europe, pausing incidentally to free the Jews from Hitler's camps. Newly emerged from the ashes, three ex-prisoners-a logician, a saint, and a schemer-come toghether. Led by nineteen-year-old Isaac Kaufman, this trio joins forces in survival to exploit the only industry up and running in a crippled German town, the black market-until they discover and decide to steal a four-foot cube:"Eighteen tons of golden ingots created from fillings pried from the teeth of the Jews of Eastern Europe."