Olaf Gruber, first-person narrator in this novel, has been sent by his boss to look for his collegue Wenzel who simply disappeared one day. Gruber takes an old map from the GDR, leaves Berlin and follows Wenzel. Soon Gruber realizes what Wenzel is looking for: Rethra, holy relic of the Wenden, the mysterious people who came to this place between Oder and Elbe a thousand years ago just to disappear again.
On his journey Gruber discovers tracks of this old people, and at the same time the new German-German everyday life. A look back into history and into everyday life told with lots of humour, based on precise view and written in stylished language.
