What the French call a "petite mort" actually ends fatally in a forest near Nuremberg. Christian Ranstedt, married and father of two children, a professor at the University of Erlangen, and a respected citizen of the city of Nuremberg, was killed by two shots to the head at close range while making love in his car. Ranstedt's wife, Julia, believed her husband was at the university. For her and their two children, a world that seemed indestructible suddenly collapsed. Why was Christian Ranstedt murdered? Why at such a piquant moment? And how did whoever was in the car with him survive?