Johannes Schönbach, a man of intellect and a bonsai Casanova, drinks his way through a cesspool populated by alcoholics, jokers, and bigwigs known as the GDR. He tries to forget that the East Berlin beauty Katja Kommerell apparently only sleeps with SED members—certainly not with him. When the philology student is condemned to a life as a laborer in a distillery for his unwelcome remarks, his sense of existence completely fades away. After the November miracle of 1989, Schönbach enters a casino filled with self-promoters, ideologues, and end consumers known as the Federal Republic, swaps his East Berlin hovel for a Munich penthouse, and bizarrely amasses a fortune. But the wonders in the life of the notorious Katja Kommerell rediscoverer are far from over...