At the end of World War One, German sniper Fidelis Waldvogel returns from the German defeat to his home town. He finds his close friend Johannes' fiancée Eva Kalib; Eva is pregnant with Johannes' child. Johannes was killed during the war and Fidelis promised him that in the event of his death he would marry Eva and take care of her and their child. Eva agrees to marry him and very soon they wed.
A sniper by necessity of war, Johannes is a butcher by profession. He leaves Germany for the United States, trying to escape the poverty in Germany that was caused by the war and also intending to set up a new life for his family and himself. His plan is to head to Seattle and to pay his way in German sausages, but there is a problem; his supply of sausages is exhausted by the time he reaches Argus, North Dakota. He begins working for the local butcher then sets up his own butcher shop, working hard until he can eventually afford to send for his wife and the child, Franz.
Meanwhile, Delphine Watzka has spent her life in Argus. She never knew her mother and her father was well known in town as the local drunk. She leaves Argus to follow her star and become a vaudeville performer. She meets a World War One veteran called Cypriam and together they perform as a duo, Delphine dancing in the top of a table that Cyprian is balancing. One day Delphine walks in on Cyprian as he is having sex with another man. Not surprisingly this revelation changes the relationship between Delphine and Cyprian but they still remain together professionally as performers and begin to pose as a married couple. When they return to Argus they visit Delphine's father who is now a non-functioning alcoholic. His house is not just a mess, it is unsanitary and there is an overpowering stench permeating the entire home. As they are cleaning, Delphine and Cyprian discover three corpses (and the cause of the stench), two adults and a child. They are identified later as the rotting remains of the Chavers family.
Min the course of trying to unravel the mystery of the corpses, and attempting to get rid of the stench from the house, Delphine meets Eva. They quickly become friends and Eva gives Delphine a job on the butcher shop. When Eva discovers that she has cancer, Delphine acts as her nurse. Her health deteriorates and her Aunt Maria Theresa arrives from Germany to take care of both Eva and the family. Tante and Delphine loathe each other on sight. As Eva is dying Tante disposed of the narcotics that she has been prescribed to help lessen her pain, because she is ashamed that Eva is seemingly dependent on them. Delphine is far more concerned with helping Eva than with appearances and tries to find a doctor and a pharmacist who will prescribe something to help her overwhelming pain. Eventually, out of desperation, Roy (her father) breaks into the pharmacy and brings Eva the morphing she so desperately needs. Eva's subsequent death has a sobering effect on Roy who was touched by the way she treated him - in fact she was one of the few people in town who was actually nice to him. Delphine steps in to take care of Fidelis and help him raise Eva's four sons.
The Chavers family murders are being investigated by Sheriff Albert Hock. In the course of his investigation he blackmails Charisse and forced her to have an affair with him. She stabs him and leaves him dead as she flees town. She is not the only one to leave; Tante and Cyprian also leave Argus, Tante going back to Germany and Cyprian returning to his life on the road as a traveling performer. The departure of both leaves Delphine and Fidelis free to begin a romance and the two ultimately marry.
Delphine's father Roy passes away too, but reveals the truth about the Chavers family before he passes. They were left in the cellar of the home a retribution towards Porky Chavers, the Chavers family patriarch, who sang over Roy in Fidelis' singing club. Roy never intended to kill them but when he was drunk he completely forgot about them and simply abandoned them in the locked cellar.
When Workd War Two breaks out in Europe, Fidelis' family is once again affected. His sons Markus and Frank enlist in the United States Army, and his two sons who returned to Germany with Tante, Erich and Emil, enlist to fight for the Germans. Emil is killed early on in the war and Erich is captured. He is transferred to a prisoner of war camp in America and once Markus learns of this he arranges for his father to visit; Erich rejects them both. Meanwhile Frank is hurt badly in an airplane crash which ultimately claims his life.
After the war has ended, Delphine and Fidelis travel to Germany where they attend the unveiling of a memorial to the bombing of Fidelis' home town. Whilst on the trip Fidelis falls gravely ill and die during their trip home to Argus.
At the end of the novel Delphine finds out who she is and where she comes from. She was abandoned by her mother and found in an outhouse by the local scrap dealer. He gave her to Roy, and he raised her as if she were his own.
