The thousand-mark-notes fluttered in the sky like a flight of swallows circling towards the setting sun. When Fred whistled through his fingers they came and slipped back into the pocket of his trousers… Fred, Nickel and Annette are young, and the world – although not the one they live in – is their oyster. They dream a common dream, and it has a name: Canada. There they'll be able to live as they please, fishing and taking photographs, far away from boring, antiquated provincial Germany. But it's impossible to go straight from Dieburg to Vancouver on the Canadian west coast without a detour. For Fred this means going to prison and then to Berlin after the fall of the wall to pick up Nickel, Annette and his money. The three of them had planned to go to Canada together – but ›the times they are a-changin'‹… Jakob Arjouni writes about Germany and the times we live in – and about a man who tries his utmost not to be beaten either by his country or his friends. In a language that is unsentimental, apt and agile, he paints a picture of the German Republic. This is a novel in the mood of a road movie, an exciting story full of irony about private and political illusions, about Germany, Berlin and the provinces.