Kurt Altman, a young man living in New York, suffers a sudden and unexplainable attack of amnesia. Increasingly paranoid, he jumps on a plane and heads South, inexplicably drawn there. On the plane he meets Hannah Brown, a business psychologist and daughter of an immigrant German Jewish family. A strong attraction draws them together and Hannah becomes a still point in Kurt's confused present. However, Kurt's urge to travel South remains strong, and he eventually finds himself in Dresden, Tennessee and in a community of German emigrants. Soon we are jolted back to the bombing of Dresden and Kurt's mother's harrowing escape. Can memories be passed to children from their parents? Could Kurt be experiencing his mother's trauma? And can the answers to Kurt's own past be found in this unknown community?