V. I. Warshawskis closest friend is the Viennese-born doctor Lotty Herschel' who lost most of her family in the Holocaust. Lotty escaped to London in 1939 on the Kindertransport with childhood playmate Kitty Saginor Binder. Now Kittys daughter finds her life is in danger and calls Lotty' who summons V.I. to help. But her troubles are just the tip of an iceberg of lies and secrets dating back to the race to develop the first atomic bomb.