Our story opens in an Austrian city, two generations before the Holocaust, where almost all the Jews have converted to Christianity.

The church bells are pealing today for Karl, an ambitious young civil servant whose conversion will clear his path to a coveted high government post. For Karl and his friends, most of whom have already converted, Judaism is an obstacle to their advancement that is easily discarded.

The only Jews left are their impoverished relatives in the outlying Carpathian mountains and a few merchants whose shoddy stalls in the center of the town have triggered a campaign to remove them in the name of progress and civic beauty. Karl's future looks bright, but with his promotion comes a political crisis that turns his conversion into a baptism by fire, unexpectedly reuniting Karl with his past and kindling a love affair that will force him to take a stand he could never have imagined.