November 1944. A gray-green painted bomber flies over the 2nd Belorussian Front around midnight, evading fire from Soviet and German anti-aircraft batteries, loses its course, and gets hit. Five men parachute out, wearing SS uniforms, one of whom is seriously injured. As he lies on the operating table of a Wehrmacht hospital, the doctor alerts the military police: SS man without blood type tattoo captured! Günter Hofé's new novel begins with a truly breathtaking action by German antifascists who have taken on a dangerous mission behind the front lines as volunteers for a Soviet reconnaissance unit. The narrative incorporates the battlefields in the East and West: On December 16, the Ardennes Offensive is launched – two armored armies of Field Marshal Rundstedt push back the Western Allied forces by almost a hundred kilometers. British Prime Minister Churchill appeals to Stalin for relief. The two largest offensives of World War II, the Vistula-Oder Operation and the East Prussia Operation, are moved forward to January 12. Their military conclusion also marks the end of German fascism, decisively defeated on the battlefields in the East.