Summary

Hans Reiter is born in Germany in 1920 to a father with one leg, a World War One veteran, and a mother with one eye. He is extremely tall for his age, and loves swimming. When Hans is ten, his mother gives birth to his sister, Lotte. Reiter adores Lotte, and begins to save all the money he earns for her. Reiter leaves school at age thirteen and begins to work on fishing boats, but he is not terribly good at his job. It is at this time that Hitler takes control of Germany.

Reiter begins to work at the country estate of a Prussian baron, the Baron von Zumpe, where his mother is also a maid. There, he is exposed to the family's enormous library and becomes consumed by their books. Reiter befriends the Baron's nephew, a boy his own age...