Narrated by Kata, daughter of a Jew who fled Budapest early in World War II for the presumed safety of Amsterdam, this novel is divided into three parts, Earth and Bed, set in Budapest in 1995 at Kata's father's funeral, and Heaven, set in the past.
During the Occupation, a Dutch woman, Ida Flinck, had hidden her father. They were in love, but she was compelled to sleep with a German officer to protect him. When Kata meets a young man named Stefan in 1965, she is strangely drawn to him. They spend a night together in a bed with two other people, but Kata remains a virgin. Later she discovers that Stefan, thought to be the son of the German officer, is in fact her half brother.
Only thirty years later, are they finally able to fulfill the passion they feel for one another.