Thirteen-year-old Todd Bowden looks like the stereotypical all-American kid with golden hair, blue eyes, white teeth, and flawless skin. He is tall and healthy and wears a bright smile. At the moment, he is riding his bike up a typical suburban street. He stops at the front of an ordinary house and approaches the door. The door is opened by a man who calls himself Arthur Denker, who looks to Todd like “a cross between Albert Einstein and Boris Karloff” (351).

Todd addresses the old man as Mr. Dussander. The man says that his name is Arthur Denker, not Dussander. Todd recites a list of German concentration camps where Denker/Dussander worked during World War II, finishing with Patin (a fictional creation of the author), where Dussander was the Unterkommandant (Lieutenant Commander). Denker/Dussander threatens to call the police, but Todd threatens in return to tell the police who Arthur Denker really is—in which case, he would be turned over to the Israeli Nazi hunters.

Todd tells Dussander that that he is a World War II buff and “grooves” on the concentration camps. He saw Dussander’s picture in an old book and recognized him at the supermarket. Some time ago, Todd encountered descriptions of the atrocities in the camps via True Stories magazines.