Reuven Matter is injured in a baseball game by a vicious hit from Danny Saunders, and the pair seem destined for lifelong enmity. But as Reuven slowly recovers, he finds that Danny, a genius with a photographic memory, has his own demons - not least the knowledge that he will have to take over as Rabbi from his father. Set against the end of the Second World War, the discovery of the Holocaust and the founding of Israel, Danny and Reuven's friendship is tested to the limits by their beliefs and the future they suppose to be ahead of them.