On his fifth Christmas Eve of World War II, during the Battle of the Bulge, Hans Kruger can think only of Aimee Ferrand, the French woman he'd first met when the German army occupied France four years earlier. Preoccupied with memories of the woman he loves, Hans must interrogate an American prisoner. Little does he know the role this man will play in shaping his fate as the Allies push further into Germany. By April of 1945, eight months following Nazi massacres in the Saulx valley of then-occupied France, a quarter million troops of the Wehrmacht surrender in the Ruhr Pocket. As American prisoners-of-war, Karl Beck-the man responsible for these massacres-is convinced Hans has betrayed him and vows to exact revenge. When Beck learns the whereabouts of an explosive secret file exposing Eisenhower's decision to halt the Allied advance upon Berlin at the river Elbe, his retribution appears to be at hand.