Follows the fate of five interrelated families - American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh - as they move through the dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for women's suffrage.

While covering her usual crime beat, newspaper reporter Hannah Vogel unexpectedly spots a photo of her brother Ernst in the Alexanderplatz Police Station on a wall displaying pictures of the unclaimed dead. Ernst had been living a high-profile life as a gay man, performing in a cabaret and exposing himself to danger by associating with known Nazis. Though barely getting by in a time when money and resources are scarce, Hannah risks it all by launching...

Analyses of interviews with various German people about national events and attitudes preceding World War II reveal why Hitler succeeded and the personal reasons Germans allowed him to come to power.

"Munich, 1920. Detective Willi Geismeier has a problem: how do you uphold the law when the law goes bad? The First World War has been lost and Germany is in turmoil. The new government in Berlin is weak. The police and courts are corrupt. Fascists and Communists are fighting in the streets. People want a savior, someone who can make Germany great again. To many, Adolf Hitler seems perfect for the job. When the offices of a Munich newspaper are bombed,...

In 1932 Berlin, thirteen-year-old Gaby Schramm witnesses the beginning of Hitler's rise to power, as soldiers become ubiquitous, her beloved literature teacher starts wearing a jewelled swastika pin, and the family's dear friend, Albert Einstein, leaves the country while Gaby's parents secretly bury his books and papers in their small yard.

"Kerr treats readers to his beloved hero's origins, exploring Bernie Gunther's first weeks on Berlin's Murder Squad. A portrait of Bernie Gunther in his twenties: He's young, but he's seen four bloody years of trench warfare. And he's not stupid. So when he receives a promotion and a ticket out of Vice squad, he knows he's not really leaving behind the criminal gangs, the perverse sex clubs, and the laundry list of human corruption. It's 1928 and...