Once again, Hermann Lenz tells the story of his alter ego, the writer Eugen Rapp. Rapp, who has moved from Stuttgart to Munich, has built a circle of friends there. With his friends, he undertakes journeys and engages in conversations about life, survival, and writing. In short, through these friends, the loner Rapp, who always stands "on the sidelines," maintains the necessary contact with the present, which he observes with skepticism, for his literary work.