This book tells a previously lost history to the masses, the story of the institute for sexual sciences headed by Dr Magnus Hirshfeld. A gay, jewish man Hirshfeld made the institute a home, a safe space - not just for the LGBTQIA+ community but also for Jewes and women facing oppression and danger with the rise of the Nazi's.

Not only do we learn about this, we several moving pictures of the institute and its residents, public for the first time. It casts a new light on Hitler and the Nazi's, the reality of the time and their eugenic ideals. How his gas chambers were originally for rassenhygeine (euthanasia) of the disabled and those they saw as genetically lesser than, before their use as the 'final solution'.

A history of light and dark:
- development and first successes of hormones and hormone therapy
- the growth of understanding queerness and gender
- the first successful transgender surgeries
but also
- the night of the long knives
- April 8th 1933 - the start of the end for the institute. The site vandalised, books burned and raided, troopers taking anything of value.

It links back to current events - a scary reality of how backwards the world is right now. To Dora Richter, Lili Elbe, and the others unnamed or lost, the fight is ongoing but we thank you for laying the foundations.