With the castle located near the eastern front of World War II, the Lecter family escapes to their lodge to elude the advancing German troops.

Three years later, an advancing Soviet tank stops at the Lecter family's lodge looking for water, only to be bombed by a German Stuka, the explosion killing all but the children.

Surviving in the lodge, Hannibal and Mischa are captured when six deserters appear: Vladis Grutas, Zigmas Milko, Bronys Grentz, Enrikas Dortlich, Petras Kolnas and Kazys Porvik.

Running low on supplies, the soldiers soon take Mischa; realizing they intend to cannibalize her, Hannibal tries to stop them, only to have his arm broken before he blacks out.

Count Lecter, learning of the slight against his wife, violently confronts the butcher and collapses and subsequently dies from a heart attack.

Suspected by Inspector Popil, Lecter escapes suspicion when Murasaki falsifies evidence, suggesting Momund's death was political.

Returning to the dilapidated lodge, Lecter searches the ruins and finds a bag of buried loot, which also contains the hidden dogtags of his captors.

Outwitting Milko and drugging him, Lecter interrogates him for information on Grutas, before drowning him in an embalming tank and incinerating his remains.

Lecter shows he took Mischa's bracelet from his daughter and, in exchange for information, offers to spare Kolnas and free his family.

Arrested by Popil, Lecter is soon freed when popular support for his dispatch of war criminals combines with a lack of hard evidence.

Offered a residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, Lecter heads overseas to North America, stopping briefly to visit bar-owner Grentz in Quebec, Canada.