Throughout the Third Reich, millions of Germans followed Adolf Hitler. In the Bavarian village of Schwarzenfeld, they followed an American citizen.
During the Depression era, Fr. Viktor Koch hired the town to construct a monastery and pried its people from the grip of poverty. In the process, he gained their loyalty. During the war years he exposed Schwarzenfelders to American concepts and infused the town culture with the distinctive message of the Passionists: Christ is present in all who suffer.
On April 22, 1945, American forces discover a ghastly Nazi atrocity on Schwarzenfeld's borders and plot retaliatory action against the townspeople. Fr. Viktor has to pull off a miracle: he must convince his outraged countrymen that these Germans have absorbed American ideals. Their humanity is intact. And most of all, they are innocent of this crime.
