Peter Bichsel tells the story of Cherubin Hammer, who believes he is a writer and unsuccessfully tries to live the biography of a writer. He faces a second Cherubin Hammer, a charming man who cannot be trusted yet is loved by everyone, who at first glance seems to have a biography of his own. There is much to tell about him, but only anecdotal. What unites the two is that they live their lives consistently and ruthlessly. Rosa Fässler and Bertha Schmied are the women who have to endure these false biographies. They bear no grudge against their oddities, even though one carries a stone "up the mountain" day after day, while the other takes taxi rides for his drinking sprees, despite the bars being only thirty meters apart. Their stories lead them sometimes to Rome and the Pantheon, sometimes to Munich.