In his historical novel, Rafael Seligmann chronicles the fate of the Bialos, a mining family, and draws a picture of 100 years of German history. The periods covered include World War I and inflation, the Third Reich and World War II, the postwar period and economic recovery, starvation and the "economic miracle." Seligmann connects the personal destinies of the family members with the major events of their time, and succeeds in painting a panorama of Germany's most important industrial region. He also avoids every kind of cliché; his biography is a time traveler's journey through Germany's industrial and social history, with all its political upheavals and dislocations.