The cinema visits of the moviegoer cannot be understood as trivial distractions; they reveal to him the loneliness and helplessness of his search. However, the searches that the films depict are distorted: the hero and outsider ends up happily conforming to the crowd. The moviegoer's mother, who left her child with the distinguished relatives when she married a simple second man, a worker who does what is necessary in the here and now without much fuss, gives her son a hint when she, in her unsentimental manner, tells him about the restlessness and depression of his father, the doctor. Ultimately, the moviegoer finds a way to begin his search. The path leads away from easy money and beautiful girls, and also away from spectacular achievements. "A rare true story," calls the translator Peter Handke the novel he has translated.