Elizabeth Kelley is an American who has lived in Germany for much of her life and remained even after Hitler's takeover. She is captured by the Gestapo for hiding her best friend, Zarah, who she believes is a Jew, and is sent to a concentration camp for her so-called crime. Derek von Vetter is the half-English, half-German nobleman and career German Army officer, who has been assigned as Kommandant as punishment by his superiors when they discover he had falsified identity papers for his grandmother's secretary and friend, Miriam, who is a Jew. If he did not accept the so-called commission, then he, Sabrina and Miriam would be incarcerated at the camp, Once there, he along with his friends in the Resistance smuggle in supplies for the benefit of the prisoners and in helping several of them to escape. If his superiors discovered these new changes, he could be killed. Could Elizabeth and the other captives trust him and his changes? Were they genuine or merely for show? Would she be able to resist falling in love with him or would her heart make the decision for her?