His mother and sister were murdered in the gas chambers on arrival, and Ovadya was sent to the Sonderkommando, the group of prisoners forced to burn the bodies of the Nazis' victims.

However, he is unable to speak of what he did to survive, and his past is gradually revealed in a series of letters to the rabbi and to Masha, a woman who was forced into prostitution during the war.

The rabbi sets him the task of bearing witness for those who were murdered in the gas chambers, but, scarred by the memory, Ovadya is reluctant to tell what he saw.

Eventually, a breakthrough occurs and he is able to do what is required by Jewish Law—to journey back to Birkenau and make a formal confession to the souls of those he feels that he has wronged.

A group of twenty young graduates from a teachers’ college in England had served as witnesses to the last will and testament of Ovadya ben Malka—one of the prisoners forced to operate the machinery of death.