As a boy, Dr. Eli Rothenberg's apparent psychic gifts created such conflict in his family, he dedicated himself to a strictly rational and scientific outlook. Now completing his medical residency, Eli is deeply shaken by the attempted suicide of his mentor and begins to re-evaluate his life choices and his feelings toward his Jewish heritage. He applies for a year-long research position in his specialty, hematology, that requires him to live in England and then Germany. He is accepted, and leaves for England determined to adopt a more traditional Jewish lifestyle.

As he travels from Los Angeles to Europe, Eli encounters two strangers who seem to know things about him that defy explanation. One is a Hasidic Jew, Abram Rabinowich, who urges him to live according to Jewish law. Abram tells Eli to look him up when he gets to Munich--even though Eli has not mentioned that he will be going to Germany. The other stranger is a far more sinister man who gives the name Schmuel and claims to be a "completed Jew"--one that has converted to Christianity.

In London, a series of bizarre assaults and murders suggest the possibility of something more than a serial killer. Victims are found with puncture wounds and suffer from uncontrollable bleeding. Schmuel finds Eli and tries to invade his life. When the English portion of his grant is abruptly terminated, Eli leaves for Munich with some relief. In Germany, he visits the ruins of the Dachau concentration camp. There he encounters an entity of such extreme evil, he barely survives. German authorities tell him that he's only the latest of a number of tourists who had been overcome by something at the camp, and all the rest of them died. Eli's rational mind recoils from the notion of vampires, but he finds it more and more difficult to resist what his experiences are telling him. He seeks out Abram Rabinowich.

Through Abram, Eli is introduced not only to a community of deeply religious orthodox Jews, but to a wider circle of gifted individuals united to fight spiritual evil. He learns that his youthful psychic gifts have a far deeper significance than he could have imagined. Eli's new disciplines and intense training take him to Israel, and finally to the ruins of Auschwitz, where he will face the ancient evil at the root of vampirism and millennia of human suffering.

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