Catherine Dessin, a young French girl living in Paris during the
occupation, falls for an older, married German officer. The novel
examines the tensions this causes within her family of patriots and
resistance workers. Meanwhile Klaus, the German officer, who is Oxford
educated and a professed Anglophile, faces his own moral dilemma as he
comes to realise, through his love for Catherine and a tragedy in his
own family, the true nature of the regime he is serving.