Occupied Berlin, 1945, American Sector. Ben, a young black-marketeer, trying to retrieve cigarette ends from under a subway station platform, discovers instead the body of a beautiful young woman. She has been sexually abused and strangled with a chain. In the scramble to identify the body, the victim is mistaken for an American and a local investigation becomes a matter for the US Military police.

In a city devastated by war, Captain John Ashburner and Detective Klaus Dietrich realise quickly that to solve this apparently motiveless murder they will have to work together. When the bodies of other young women are discovered it becomes clear that this is no isolated act of violence.

Daring, atmospheric and taut, Pierre Frei has fashioned a gripping whodunit from the wreckage of Berlin. There is a powerful pulse buried deep in the rubble.