PART I
In Part I the illicit friendship quickly has to become furtive as John’s father is active in illegal black market and theft from the Occupiers, while Franz is under the protective eye of his uncle who is an officer in the Gestapo. Their innocent adventures lead to trauma and tragedy, not only in their own lives, but in the many lives of contacts and associates.

PART II
Thirteen months into the German occupation of the tiny British island of Guernsey, civilians and occupiers having adapted to an uneasy co-existence, John Collins, fifteen year-old forced worker for the Germans; and Franz Müller, German soldier of the same age, have struck up a friendship. This friendship of two naïve and unworldly youths, little more than children, in its defiance of the state of war, has led them into serious trouble with the authorities. As they await retribution, they also find themselves embroiled in equally sinister, although more clandestine, moral danger which is outside their experience and with which they are too immature to cope alone. Those from whom they should expect to seek help and guidance are all too preoccupied with their own emotions and anxieties, and are too demoralized, to recognize the danger.

PART III
During the second year of German occupation of the British island of Guernsey, John Collins, teenage conscripted worker for the Germans, has struck up a naïve and innocent friendship with Franz Müller, a German soldier of the same age. Their innocent adventures have led them into grave moral danger and to retribution. Through his naive fraternization with the enemy, John has ruined the lives of many, not least, his best friend. For their crimes against the state of war, Franz is posted to the unknown terrors of the Russian Front, whereas John serves a prison sentence in France. After the Liberation in 1945, with still no word from Franz, John is driven by a sense of guilt and rejection, as he searches for his missing friend in post-war Europe. The closer he comes to finding Franz, the more confused he becomes, so that often reality and fantasy become indistinguishable for him, and his career and private life are forever influenced by ghosts from the past.