Europe was in chaos at the end of the second World War. As the allied troops moved in, those alive who had backed Hitler or engineered a profitable war for their own ends, fled. Rolf von Breusch, murderer, Nazi and now recovering alcoholic, leaves Switzerland, and under cover of an easily obtained new identity - Ian David Ross - finds sanctuary at the Eidelweiss Pensione where he is employed in lieu of rent. It is indicative of Rolf's nature that he does not regard his employment as a saving grace, but as slavery. It is there, while out on a summer's day, that he sees a female figure struggling to stand on the riverbank. This fateful meeting leads to Ian falling in love and their return to England, where they are sponsored as migrants to Australia. Ian and Welsh ballet dancer, Gigi, settle on a farm at Yass, in the southern New South Wales highlands. The lives of this family should have progressed in peace and profitability, but betrayal and murder lead them into the darkness which could - and should - have been allowed to stay in Europe… but Ian Ross cannot control the hatred hidden deep within Rolf von Breusch.