TV researcher Clare is given the job of befriending the star success story - Max, a 1930s socialist hero thrown into the 21st century. She is convinced his story can make her career and the closer she gets to him the more fascinated she becomes with the principled, old-fashioned mind inside the young man's body.

But several groups are after the 'Buchenwald Brains'. There are the devastated families of the donated bodies. Neo-Nazis who want to recreate the evil past. And the rich, quick to spot the possibility of eternal life. People start dying. Max has his own agenda. Clare is being dragged into a secret bigger than she can possibly imagine.