The story is told in the first person narrative point of view, which means that the reader has insight into the narrator's thoughts and emotions, as well as the action of the plot. The narrator is living in the United States at the time that he writes the letter, and the actual story begins in France from where the narrator and his wife try to escape the German invasion in 1940.

The time is further defined as a few weeks "before the gentle Germans roared into Paris." The narrator's sarcastic tone extends to a description of Hitler as "a booted and buckled fool with his assortment of variously propelled junk..."

The story is actually a letter and reads in the expected conversational tone with personal references interjected, for example, the initial writing experiences shared by the narrator and V. The tone of the letter is sincere...