Mark Slouka's novel begins with the child of Czech immigrants to the US, now living in New York, who has been brought up on the folklore of his parents' homeland. As he grows up he becomes aware that he has never been told what his parents did during the Nazi occupation of Prague. As an adult he makes a journey back to Czechoslovakia and it is only then that he discovers their part in the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the notorious `butcher of Prague' and begins to understand his mother Ivana's unhappiness. Intertwined with this gripping history is a passionate love story, the tragic consequences of which transcend both years and continents.