This novel is based on the real-life story of the author, only some names have been changed. It begins in 1929, in a small rural village near the northern edge of the Black Forest in southern Germany. During the annual visit of the Gypsies from Hungary, the Gypsy matriarch tells his mother of her boy's future. He was to be endowed with talent for art and have good hands, perhaps become an engineer. His life would be filled with love, good fortune but also tragedy, which would have great influence on the building of his character. As a young man he would leave the safety of his surroundings and cross a "big water." This book is dedicated to the memory of a great love, which passed many cruel tests, but lives on to this day.