The narrator of The End of a Family Story is a young boy who lives alone with his grandparents. His rebellious, talkative grandfather escapes the present by fleeing to his memories of the past, weaving for his grandson a fantastic tapestry of stories of both family sagas and biblical, talmudic, and historical characters. As he talks, he teaches the boy that in every sentence of these stories is "a unit of truth." Simultaneously, they realize that the boy's father, a government official, has betrayed the family, and is now being named a traitor by the authorities. Liberated into sincerity and freedom by his grandfather's stories, the boy gives dark and passionate testimony to the horrors of the adult world.