Two seemingly unrelated incidents occur in widely separated cities. Marlene Spencer is injected with a mysterious drug and erroneously pronounced dead. Joel Kramer, a Nazi war criminal hunter based in Los Angeles, learns an ex-Nazi officer has been murdered by mutilation in Switzerland. The alleged killer is Pelagia Espinosa, widow of a Buenos Aires millionaire.Joel leaves for South America to learn more. Severely beaten during his stay, he can only conclude Pelagia was responsible. However, she arrives at the hospital during the night to spirit him away to her home where she relives the tortuous years she spent in Auschwitz as a Polish dissident.Joel tells her of his futile search for a man known as the Courier. To his surprise, Pelagia remembers a courier who visited Auschwitz frequently, meeting only with Dr. Karl Risch who conducted experiments at the dreaded camp. It was reported he committed suicide as the Russians arrived at the gates. The Courier was Marlene Spencer's father, Kurt Trager.Karl Risch is alive, working with billionaire Regnier Aust to rid the world of genetically defective humans and Pelagia must complete the love/hate circle that began in a concentration camp in Poland.