This novel is fragmented into five episodes.
It narrates the story of the Twelve-year-old Anton Steenwijk, who lives in the outskirts of Haarlem (1945). This is the time of the Nazi occupation. In the events that soon follow, Anton loses his family and is sent to live in the care of his aunt and uncle. Anton later marries twice and has two children. He still harbors repressed memories of his past, not quite understanding the events that changed his life forever. He gets to know more about these events by chance and is sometimes overwhelmed due to his past experiences. He carefully analyses the whole dynamic of the past situation, trying to understand it more extensively.
At this very time, there is a rise of a Dutch society from the war. In 1952, he finds his way back to Haarlem. He visits the monument that had been erected in honor of those who had perished that night with his family. He soon comes across Fake Ploeg’s son who compares their lives and defends his father. In 1962, he learns more about the events of that night as well as the assassination of Fake Ploeg, however it is in 1981 when he finally finds out why his family suffered the fate that they did.
