For fifty years, Anna Schlemmer has refused to talk about her life in Germany during World War II. Her daughter, Trudy, was only three when she and her mother were liberated by an American soldier and went to live with him in Minnesota. Trudy's sole evidence of the past is an old photograph; a family portrait showing Anna, Trudy, and a Nazi officer, the Obersturmfuumlehrer of Buchenwald. Driven by the guilt of her heritage, Trudy, now a professor...

Twenty years after her bipolar brother's penchant for chasing tornadoes leads to deadly consequences, Karena Jorge finds out that he has escaped from a psychiatric ward, prompting her to join a band of professional stormchasers in hope of finding her disturbed brother.