The point of divergence occurs in 1913 when
Alfred von Schlieffen, who in real life died in 1913, survives to personally oversee the successful implementation of his
famous plan for two-front war against
France and
Russia. Germany wins the
Great War in 1914 after only a few months, and fully occupies both France and
Belgium while the
United Kingdom and Russia back out of the war completely. Two years later in 1916, an earlier
communist revolution erupts in Russia,
Kaiser Wilhelm II (fearing the consequences within his country's own borders if the Russian Empire collapsed) helps his cousin and former enemy
Tsar Nicholas II to crush it quickly. The main action of the story itself is set in May 1929, as sergeant
Adolf Hitler of the
Feldgendarmerie is sent to
Lille in pursuit of communist agitator
Jacques Doriot. The story is a series of letters from "Uncle Alf" to his niece/lover,
Geli Raubal. In these letters, he expresses his frustration with the complacency of the local German officials; his disgust with the "degraded" French; his utter devotion to the German Empire, and; his unrestrained (and
incestrial) passion for his beloved Geli. ==See also==