At the center is the life story of the half-Jew Theodor Königs, who grows up in the bitterest poverty amidst the non-Jewish proletariat of Berlin. He endures the humiliations and brutality of his violent father almost without complaint. He finds refuge in his love for his mother, in the beauty of music and literature, which he encounters in the villa of the manufacturer Falk, who supports the talented boy. Then there is his acting talent, which he discovers early on and later reveals to a large audience. However, he can never fully detach himself from his roots. He cannot do so - he moves gracefully in the world of the privileged, but he does not belong to them. Just as little does he belong to the world from which he comes; here too, he remains an outsider, admired but unloved. Fink's prose draws its strength from a narrative tone that is deeply human.