"Spatzen" is an unusual story that recounts a specific event from the Cultural Revolution from a child's perspective: One day, people are urged to take to the streets with pots and pans and make noise until all the sparrows fall to the ground, exhausted and dead. They are considered pests that peck at valuable seeds. A boy climbs onto the roof of his parents' house to get closer to the birds. There, he discovers a frightened pair of sparrows hiding behind the chimney. An interesting dialogue unfolds, during which the boy realizes that not everything the adults do is necessarily right.