Rudolf Hess Speaks consists of translations of several of his speeches between 1933 and 1937. It is divided into six chapters. Rudolf Hess Speaks for Peace is translated from four speeches by Rudolf Hess about peace and international understanding between 1934 and 1937. The first speech was directed at the front-fighters of all nations. The second, delivered to an elite audience in Stockholm, promoted under-standing for the young National Socialist state. The third speech was directed at American women and the fourth to youth from around the world. Rudolf Hess Speaks of the Party is translated from three speeches by Rudolf Hess between 1934 and 1936 about the National Socialist German Workers' Party. The first speech describes the very early days of the back then tiny and apparently insignificant NSDAP. The second speech explains why Adolf Hitler, already Reich Chancellor, also becomes Reich President after Hindenburg's death. The third speech, delivered only five days before the purge of Ernst Rohm, deals with the trans-formation of the NSDAP from opposition party to ruling party and also denounces the "second revolution." Rudolf Hess Speaks to the Folk is translated from three speeches by Rudolf Hess between 1935 and 1936. The first speech was directed at the German workers shortly after the proclamation of the re-introduction of compulsory military service. The second speech was delivered at the Reich Peasant Day in 1935. The third speech "to bread-winners and consumers" covers, among other issues, the problem of shortages. Rudolf Hess Speaks of Liberation and Defense is translated from seven speeches, delivered between 1934 and 1937, about the liberation from the shackles of the Treaty of Versailles and German defense. The first speech is about the Saarland's return to the German Reich. The second speech deals with the Wehrmacht's re-occupation of the previously "de-militarized" Rhineland. The third and fourth speeches are directed at the ethnic Germans outside Germany. The fifth speech was directed at officers of the National Political Course of the armed forces. The sixth speech was delivered on the occasion of the launching of the training ship "Horst Wessel." The seventh speech deals with the German-Japanese Anti-Comintern Treaty. Rudolf Hess Speaks to Soldiers is translated from three speeches by Rudolf Hess between 1936 and 1937. The first speech was directed at officers of the National Political Course of the armed forces. The second speech was delivered on the occasion of the launching of the training ship "Horst Wessel." The third speech deals with the German-Japanese Anti-Comintern Treaty. Rudolf Hess Speaks to Leaders is translated from eight speeches by Rudolf Hess between 1933 and 1936. These leaders include political leaders of the NSDAP and its auxiliaries - S.A., S.S., National Socialist Motor Corps, National Socialist Students' Organization, Hitler Youth, German Young Folk, Federation of German Girls, National Socialist Women's Organization - as well as government officials, representatives of the armed forces and the Work Service."

Rudolf Hess was Adolf Hitler's Deputy Führer until, in 1941, he flew to Scotland, ostensibly to negotiate peace between Germany and Britain. Captured by the British, he was held for the rest of the War, before being convicted of war crimes at the Nuremberg Trials in 1946. Desmond Zwar collaborated with Col. Burton C. Andrus, who was Commandant of Nuremberg Prison during the Trials, on his book The Infamous of Nuremberg, and with Col. Eugene K. Bird, US Governor of Spandau Prison (where Hess was held for over forty years), on The Loneliest Man in the World. For reasons of practicality, neither of these books told the full story, which is now revealed for the first time in Talking to Rudolf Hess. As well as his interviews with Hess and others, Zwar tells the story of how this book came to be written, including how Hess hid proofs in his underpants, how Bird was sacked by the US Army and how the CIA tried to recover the transcripts.