A mysterious fire that destroys an old woman's shop on Christmas morning sets the stage for this haunting love story about a man who has lost his faith and a woman newly discovering her own.

Learning of the death of a cherished friend from the past, Michael begins to reminisce about his first love. Michael and Hannah are teenagers living in the same New York City neighborhood when they meet in the wake of a cruel act of antisemitism targeting Hannah's beloved grandmother. After Hannah and her family move away as a result, Michael is bereft.Eight years later, as they are about to graduate from college, Michael and Hannah meet again in a chance encounter and begin a passionate romance. But their love is soon tested by an ill-fated mixture of history, religious bigotry, and a dark secret that goes back decades to Hitler's Germany. Its revelation propels both Hannah and Michael on individual journeys of self-discovery, taking them to the same place but in search of different things. This thought-provoking novel explores the resulting collision between the passions of ideology and love, and the enduring power of memory.