Nineteen-year-old Sanna just wants to drink her beer in peace, but that's difficult when Hitler has come to town and his motorcade is blocking the streets of Frankfurt. And now life seems more complicated every day. Her best friend Gerti is in love with a Jewish boy, her brother writes books that have been put on a black list and her own aunt may denounce her to the authorities at any moment...

Keun's masterpiece, written after she had fled Nazi Germany, captures the hysteria and horror of the era with devastating vividness and redemptive humour.