In Berlin a political activist is gunned down in the street. In Paraguay a smuggler is killed in a hit-and-run. And then an elderly German businessman puts a gun in his mouth in his luxurious South American mansion. Joseph Volkmann, a member of an elite European security force, finds himself drawn into the mystery of the brutal deaths, investigating a link between the seemingly random cases that cost the journalist who connected them his life.
For Volkmann a painful journey lies ahead, leading him from barren Mexican ranches to Italian ports and abandoned German monasteries, a journey that will force him to confront his own ghosts and a people he has long mistrusted.