The book is based on Bonhoeffer's own papers and scholarship about him.

An imaginative and reflective novel about the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German pastor and theologian, sentenced to death for his involvement in a conspiracy to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

This book describes Bonhoeffer looking back from his cell over the fateful trajectory that brought him to prison - and later, trial and hanging. It also imagines Bonhoeffer looking back further to his childhood and family; his education and turn to theology and ministry; his travels to Spain, America and London; and his opposition to the Third Reich.