Maya Duran, a divorcee, works for the Rector of Istanbul University. She has one son, Kerem. Mothering him is not her strong suit. Kerem is a nerd and is closer to his computer than to her. When an elderly German man, Maximilian Wagner, who had been a visiting professor at the university almost six decades ago, returns to speak at the university, Maya is assigned to pick him up and take him to and fro. She takes an immediate liking to him and becomes more involved than she intended, or should be, and is slowly embroiled in an investigation of Max, and then, even of herself!
At the same time that Maximillian Wagner had taught in Istanbul, there were many Jewish professors who were also visiting professors there. They were unable to teach in Germany after Hitler enacted laws curtailing the activities of the Jews. Turkey offered them sanctuary. While Max was not Jewish, his wife Nadia was Jewish. As Maya discovers their secrets, and those of her own family, she laments man’s inhumanity to man and the reasons for it.
She discovers that the background of both of her grandmothers had to be kept secret. If known, the family could be in grave danger. The government was in charge, right or wrong, and as her brother told her, supporting the government was his job, even if the government was wrong. Soon she learned that the government knew more about her than she might know herself.
As Maya spends more and more time with the 87-year-old professor, she notices that men in a car seem to be watching her, she engages her son's help and asks him to do some research on Wagner. Could he be a spy? This project brings Kerem and his mother closer together. As she becomes more and more involved with the mystery surrounding Max, the corruption of the men in her own government and others is revealed. The shameful disregard for human life during the Holocaust is illustrated.
It seems that a boat that was not seaworthy was engaged to transport Jews to Palestine, in an effort to save their lives. Instead, a terrible tragedy ensued. The boat carried 800 passengers instead of 100 and had only one toilet. Overloaded and in terrible condition, when it arrived in Istanbul, they were not allowed to disembark. There were no ports of entry that would welcome the Struma. The passengers were left on the boat, in its dreadful state, as Turkey was persuaded not to let them enter and Britain refused them entry to Palestine. Turkey and England behaved abominably. Wagner’s wife was on that boat. The boat was sent back to Germany, but it was not seaworthy and was soon left afloat in the water.
Wagner was a talented musician, totally devoted to Nadia. He had written a serenade for her, but the score disappeared when he was forced to leave Istanbul because of the cover-up of the Struma incident which caused the murder of all but one passenger who survived. The boat was torpedoed. This part of the novel about the Struma is based on an actual travesty of justice.
Because of Maya's involvement with Max, her own reputation is sullied by those who spend their lives criticizing the behavior of women while their own behavior is more than suspect. Good Muslims were supposed to behave properly. Who decides what is proper? Her relationship with Max opens Maya’s eyes to her own vulnerability, and the injustices of the world around her, since her own behavior is questioned and found wanting.
When the book opens and concludes, she is on her way to America. On the plane, she writes her story. It involves the tyranny of many countries when power is entrusted to evil men. The plight and suffering of the Jews, Armenians, Muslim Tatars and even the Yazidis is noted. Meeting Max has changed Maya and given her a new purpose in life coupled with a greater sense of her own need for real freedom of choice and the realization that blindly following a corrupt power is not a righteous choice.
Quoting from the book about Germany sums up how power can corrupt. “Looking back, it’s hard to understand how an entire nation could be so blind and acquiescent, but, then again, it’s easy to imagine the same thing happening here."(In the book they mean in Turkey, currently under the yoke of a government with too much power.) The quote continues, "No one listens to the few lone voices who point out how the Islamists are taking over the judiciary, the upper levels of the police, the schools, and, indeed, the entire government bureaucracy – how they’re already pushing ahead their agenda in the major cities whose administrations they control….Hitler managed to get the Enabling Act passed in parliament, giving his government unlimited power. How long will it be before something similar happens here?” (Once again, the novelist refers to Turkey.
Today, could it not easily describe the climate in the United States, as well? The novel illustrates changing times and the subtle control, the tyranny of power, when one philosophy takes complete precedence over reason.