This book amazes with its sincerity - everything that is written in it is true. During World War II, British officer Eric Lomax is captured. After terrible torture and humiliation in a Japanese concentration camp, he can no longer return to his former life. The thought of retribution does not leave him. He is sure that his tormentors deserve the most terrible punishment, and he has special hatred for the translator who was present during all the tortures. His wooden, dispassionate voice is in Lomax’s ears. And then they meet - two very old men. One dreams of taking revenge all his life, the other wants to atone for his sins. And Lomax realizes that, to his own surprise, he does not have a clear answer to the question of whether hatred can be eternal.