Poland, 1944

Alfred Mendl counts down his final days within the confines of a hell on earth. His family was torn away from him on arrival, his life's work was burned before his eyes. Now his only joy comes from watching the occasional game of chess. To the guards he is unassuming, but in fact Mendl - a leading physicist - holds knowledge that only two people in the world possess. The other person is working hard for the Nazi war machine.

Four thousand miles away . . .

In Washington DC, intelligence lieutenant Nathan Blum decodes messages from occupied Poland. Having escaped the Krakow ghetto after the Nazis executed his family; Nathan thinks he has a safer future. But the US government has other ideas. They want to send Nathan back to Europe to rescue one man from a place no one can break in to - or out of.

But even if Nathan does make it in, how on earth will they make it out alive?