Campbell’s narrative begins as he is imprisoned in Jerusalem in 1961, awaiting his trail for war crimes he committed as a Nazi propagandist in World War II. Campbell works on a German typewriter, which still bears a special key for the SS symbol. He reflects on the many times he used the symbol and the terror it used to inspire. The ancient building where his cell is located gives him an impression of deep history, and the war itself, having concluded almost 20 years before, forms part of that history. Campbell’s morning guard speaks to him about the Assyrian leader Tiglath-pileser the Third, as the guard is also working to excavate a city razed in the 700s by the Assyrian. Campbell admits he doesn’t know of Tiglath-pileser, but compares him to a person he considers a great man, Paul Joseph Goebbels, the chief propagandist for the Nazi party. Campbell’s young guard, however, doesn’t recognize the name.

The afternoon guard is a man Campbell’s age, 48, who spent time in the Auschwitz concentration camp. He came close to being murdered in the gas chambers, having signed up to be a part of the Sonderkommando unit, a specialized group of prisoners who escort other prisoners to their deaths, clean up the bodies of the executed, and eventually are executed themselves.