The story is set in October 1944 during a different version of World War II, although those differences are not immediately clear. The POV character is Joseph Stieglitz, a Hauptsturmführer of the SS, stationed in Hungary shortly after Germany invaded the country and replaced Miklos Horthy with Ferenc Szálasi. Stieglitz is hopeful that Szálasi and his Arrow Cross Party will be motivated to fight off the Red Army, which has just crossed the country's eastern border. In the meantime, Stieglitz is tasked with rounding up a village of Romani people (called Zigeuner in German), in western Hungary, consistent with the Nazi Party's real life efforts to exterminate the Roma.