Planned as a series of 24 magazines, since reduced to 22,[1] then re-released in book form, it describes life in Berlin from 1928 to 1933, during the decline of the Weimar Republic.

A second storyline describes a working-class family which breaks up due to differing political views, the mother, Gudrun, eventually joining the communists with her daughters Elga and Silvia, while the father takes his son Heinz to the Nazis.

Another major subplot involves a group of African-American jazz musicians who perform at a Berlin nightclub, but slowly begin to believe they are being ripped-off by their local manager.

The book ends with a contemporary (2017) photograph of Potsdamer Platz,[a] echoing the drawing on page 18 of the place in 1928, and then with the coat of arms of Berlin from 1280.

Organizations: Historical figures (in order of appearance): Joachim Ringelnatz, Carl von Ossietzky, Ernst Thälmann, Joseph Goebbels, Josephine Baker, Horst Wessel, and Adolf Hitler.