In this wartime adventure, Ferry Tobler is a teen-aged Jewish boy living in Vienna in 1938. He has just lost his father, who was beaten to death by Nazis, and he has the good sense to see that he must flee Austria. He heads to Prague and manages, with other refugees' help, to get the papers he needs to travel to France. There, he meets up with a deserter from the Nazi army who could not bear the goings-on at Dachau and fled, but while there he won the nickname "Gandhi" from the inmates for his gentleness. The ferociously anti-Semitic French government and police closely examine all foreigners for this unwanted heritage, and Ferry and his buddies are soon rounded up, with the grimmest of fates awaiting Gandhi. This was part one of a trilogy by Axel Corti on the effects of the Nazi movement on the citizens of his country of Austria, and it was well-received by reviewers.