Arnon Grunberg leaves his parental home in Amsterdam South when he is eighteen. He wants to become an actor and escape his childhood nest, his dominant mother, and his taciturn father. By now, he is 44 and returns to his parents. Arnon Grunberg leaves New York for the Netherlands to write a book about his mother, Hannelore Klein. During conversations about the war years, the tension between mother and son becomes palpable, as does the unconditional love they feel for each other. The conversations are interspersed with intimate scenes, revealing the world the writer has always carefully shielded from his public life.