Kanowitsch brings to life a world that no longer exists. A beautiful family novel full of poetry and wisdom about the last twenty years of the shtetl in Eastern Europe. It is a moving and very poetic tribute to a vanished piece of Jewish life. The young tailor Schlojmke is drafted into the Lithuanian army for two years, but his love for Chanke endures throughout this time. Ultimately, he stands up to his strict mother Roche and is allowed to marry his Chanke. Their son Hirschele - Grigori Kanowitsch himself - tells the story of his family in the 1920s and 1930s, which is also the story of the decline of the shtetl in Eastern Europe. A warm-hearted, nostalgic look back. Despite the upheavals and threats of the time, it is not filled with anger, but rather with much sympathy.