Through the eyes of a despairing artist, Böll draws a revealing portrait of German society under Hitler and in the postwar years.

In his pantomimes, Hans Schneir recreates incidents in people's lives with honesty and compassion. After the departure of a lover, he recalls his own history with equal sensitivity and cynical idealism: his mother, working for "racial reconciliation" after fighting to save Germany from the Jewish Yankees; his brother, ensconced in a Catholic seminary; his lover, Maria, who married another in hopes of regaining the comforts of Catholicism. Schneir's own comfort, however, remains elusive.