A beautiful young actress, the rising star of the giant German film company UFA--now under the control of the Propaganda Ministry. The very clever, very dangerous Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels--close confidant of Hitler, an ambitious schemer, and a flagrant libertine. And Bernie Gunther, former Berlin Homicide bull--now forced to run errands at the Propaganda Minister's command.Goebbels's errand takes Bernie from Berlin to Zurick to Zagreb and beyond. In the brutal killing fields of Croatia, where the Ustaše government is a beast running wild, he witnesses the horrifying sadism of out-of-control madmen whose actions even hardened Wehrmacht observers find revolting. And in the seeming peace of Switzerland, Bernie runs up against Allen Dulles's murderous operatives as well as highly suspect Swiss-German dealings. Even his earlier experiences on the Eastern Front have not prepared Bernie for the snake pit he has fallen into.