Gesine Cresspahl, who lives in New York, tells her eleven-year-old daughter Marie the family history during the period 1967–1968. In flashbacks, she describes the time in Germany before and during National Socialism and the early GDR. In doing so, she also draws on events that took place before her birth. Important stages in the narrative are the following aspects: On Kristallnacht, Gesine's mother commits suicide, her father spies for the British Army during the war and is imprisoned by the Soviets for several years in the Fünfeichen camp after the war ends. After the founding of the GDR, Gesine and her lover Jakob are pressured by the Stasi because they refuse to carry out certain assignments. Eventually, Gesine emigrates to West Germany and then to the USA.