The year is 1945, and Germany, occupied by Allied troops, is in ruins. Colin Patterson, young, fresh, idealistic, has been recruited to the Control Commission in Bad Oeynhausen where the British Army has its headquarters. Colin is looking forward to helping Germany get back on its feet., helping to rebuild a ravaged country.. Far more fun than going up to Oxford to read law, Colin thinks, especially as he has just missed out on the war.The reality is very different, as he soon discovers: extreme poverty, women driven to prostituting themselves, rape and other forms of savagery - and the ubiquitous Black Market, in which Patterson unwittingly becomes involved.