A year before the Peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years' War, the most famous Baroque poets gather in Telgte in the Münsterland during the summer of 1647. Grimmelshausen provides them with accommodations, and the landlady Courage serves as their host. While the peace negotiations set the stage for new wars, the poets read from their manuscripts. A lively conversation develops about the love for their mother tongue, the misery of their homeland, and moral standards in dark times. The authors even tackle a manifesto. Günter Grass invents what could have been, a persistently relevant story in a war-torn time. With powerful language, he captures the lifestyle and spirit of the Baroque era and tells of the indestructible power of poetry, the spirit of camaraderie, and the (powerlessness) of poets.