On a night flight from the United States to Frankfurt, Gerhard Padderatz meets a woman whom he calls Margot Naumann.

All night long they explore the most basic questions of life: Why are we here? Where are we going? If there is a good God, why is there so much pain and injustice in the world? How should we live? What happens next?

Clifford Goldstein writes that the dialogues allows us ‘to be voyeurs. We can listen over the shoulders of Mr. Padderatz and Mrs. Naumann as they talk about everything from UFOs to hell, from 3-D movies in Heaven to the vexing problem of human suffering . . . Whether you agree with Mrs. Naumann’s skepticism and dismiss Mr. Padderatz’s faith, or vice-versa, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you come away from this all-night conversation enriched.’