It begins with a stroke of luck: The first-person narrator, along with his wife and daughter, is able to move into an abandoned house in a quieter suburb in February 1945, where only the housekeeper and hidden supplies remain. The life of this small community is vividly and dramatically portrayed during a time when the past is brutally sinking and the future is more than dark. However, it is not only marked by fear of death, destruction, hunger, and the anxiously awaited arrival of the victors, but also by optimistic plans for a democratic future and deeply personal longings that sometimes turn into fundamental questions of life in this apocalyptic situation. Then peace comes, bringing its own dangers. Nevertheless, calm has not yet arrived. It is told vividly and uncompromisingly.