This is a family story that covers 30 years in the life of the Freytag family, narrated by grandson Robert. When his grandfather returns from Russia in 1949, he becomes part of the German "economic miracle" by producing garden gnomes. Robert's father Klaus wants to become a writer. He marries Gisela, who almost immediately gets pregnant with Robert, but the marriage doesn't work. Both parents abandon the boy, who is raised by both sets of grandparents. While his father belongs to the 1960s generation that rebels against their fathers, he falls in love with the neighbor's's daughter Laura.—Hightower2232