Can Aaron kill? About to enter World War II the words of his friends haunt him. There was more. On the eve of going off to boot camp, when he tells his Ukrainian mother he is going to marry the pastor's daughter, she tells him he is Jewish and can never marry a Christian woman. Aaron and Mary defy their parents and marry anyway, and have a son.
As he fights his way across Europe, he observes destroyed churches and synagogues, death camps for Jews, and faces bible carrying Germans. He is haunted by questions about the differences in religions and why he was forbidden to marry the preacher's daughter.
After the war, battlefield nightmares turn him to alcohol and is forced leave home. Through a twist of fate, he confronts the German soldier who has haunted him. He learns he is not the evil nemesis of his nightmares and faces a choice that can allow him to return home.