Moppi is a small Spitz and comes from Nackenheim. There, he lives a lively and content life with Selma, Heinrich, Herbert, and Helmut Wolff until the Nazis come to power. They do not like the Wolffs because they are Jewish. The Wolff family must leave Nackenheim, and Moppi moves with them to Mainz into a large house on Kaiserstrasse, where he meets Peter, a terrier. They become friends. But the friendship lasts only a short time. Peter's owners, Adolf and Nanette Lekisch, are also Jewish and soon leave the country. In the French city of Nîmes, they meet the Jewish writer Lion Feuchtwanger and his wife Marta. During a difficult journey through France, Spain, and Portugal, they manage to escape to their children in the USA. Peter is immortalized in Feuchtwanger's "The Devil in France.".