When Marek Halter was five years old, he and his family fled from the Warsaw Ghetto with the help of two Polish Catholics. Fifty-three years later, now a distinguished French writer and social commentator, Halter returned to Warsaw, and from there went on a quest across Europe, seeking out and interviewing gentiles who had risked their own lives to save the lives of Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe.

From his research with Holocaust survivors, Halter developed a list of "the Just" - those who, according to Jewish tradition, must exist in each generation in order to save the world from destruction. Halter's encounters with these heroes and with those they saved are described in a series of little stories, interspersed with his own memories and observations.

These "just" men and women range from obscure peasants to such notables as former West German chancellor Willy Brandt, the post-Communist leader of Lithuania, and the present Pope. The material of this book also forms the subject of a film directed by Halter, Tzedek: The Righteous.