A narrator with an unparalleled power of observation and boundless sensitivity and imagination draws from a wealth of experiences. Leni Pfeiffer, née Gruyten, born in 1922, meets and falls in love with the Soviet prisoner of war Boris during the war, secures him a German passport, and learns that he dies in an American camp. Now, at forty-eight, their son is in prison for trying to right a wrong done to his mother in his own way. An author ironically introduced as "Verf." reconstructs the life of this woman from the testimonies left behind, conversations, and memories. Heinrich Böll has created a richly structured and episodic panorama of German pre- and post-war history with this now classic novel.