In this remarkable book, Hugo Hamilton tells the story of individuals caught up in the turbulent last days of the Second World War. Stationed in Czechoslovakia, lovers Bertha Sommer and Officer Franz Kern, long to escape from the war and its consequences, but they are trapped between the advancing Red Army and the fear of their own system, which punishes desertion with death. Meanwhile, an American contemporary, living in Germany, sets out on a mission to find the exact location of the last shot fired in the war, in a personal attempt to close this horrific chapter in humanity's history.