In response to the attacks of September 11, 2001, the U.S. government declares a war on terrorism, the consequences of which confront Jeff Montrose three years later as an infantry officer and platoon leader in Iraq.

Under American occupation of Iraq, a war is raging between the fronts for which no one was prepared. Fighting an often invisible enemy and in the confusion of seemingly haphazard military operations, a struggle erupts in Jeff Montrose as well.

The suffering and death of civilians, the loss of comrades, the arbitrariness between survival and death, his own brutalization as a soldier and the question of the meaningfulness of the mission bring him to end his military career.

To make a new start in Bavaria, Jeff Montrose learns German and faces up to coming to terms with what he has experienced. The result is this book in the language of his new home, which subjects his deployment in the Iraq war to a well-founded and at the same time emotional and relentlessly critical review.