Marcus Hartstein was abused as young boy in Austria by his parents during the second World War. In 1946 he is rescued by a kindly Doctor from the British Sector as suspicion is growing about his mother's death. When his friend and saviour is killed along with his wife, he vows revenge, and to protect his now orphaned step-sister, Barbara.
Although he changes his name to Hartmann his act of revenge sees him recruited by the Secret Service, and during one of his covert missions in Armenia, rescues a beautiful young Kurdish woman, Rosa.
Marcus, Barbara and Rosa are entwined in a love-affair which nothing can destroy.
Marcus is constantly fighting his dormant memories of his early home life, and his treatment by his parents, and vows revenge on behalf of other young boys who have been harmed, where their perpetrators have not faced justice. Detective Christine Ling has been following the Rope Killer, as the press call him, for many years, and is on the verge of catching her quarry, and perhaps saving the life of a suspected paedophile, and from the macabre manner in which his victims are left - but can she make the rendezvous in time?
On the other-side of Marcus Hartmann is a gentle, generous and loving person, who, along with Barbara and Rosa, help to educate consenting couples in the art of Making Love. Chas and Isobel were the last such couple in 1979 who Marcus tutored, and they become close friends, although very unaware of Marcus's dark side.
During the intervening years Marcus searches for answers to his early life, seeking out his brother Marius, who is ten years older, but has not been seen since the end of the War.
Life throws many challenges to Marcus Hartmann; physically abused boy, murderer, guardian, lover; but as a survivor for Justice he can only help a pitiful few victims of the abuse he suffered - not knowing to what extent this disease is actually rampant in our society, not just in his time, but in the years to follow . . . in the present.
Nothing is Sacrosanct. Anything can be changed. Anyone can be brought to account.
