Gideon Zadok, desperate to resurrect his career after succumbing to the lure of Hollywood, travels to Israel, determined to find material for a new book. There, he finds Natasha Solomon, a survivor of the Holocaust, and her disturbed passion for him unleashes his own smouldering desires.
Then, on the eve of the '56 Sinai War, he abandons her and joins the Israeli forces and is parachuted, to the key junction of Mitla Pass where, amid the sounds of battle, Gideon wages a war no less violent within himself, as he strives to come to grips with the frightening power of love-hate.