We begin in Tunisia, where a young woman's son is stolen from her, taken by his father back to Berlin, far from reach. And yet this mother will do anything to reclaim him; she embarks on a journey first across the Mediterranean, and then across Europe. Her story emerges through a kaleidoscope of voices of the people she meets along the way-a taxi driver, a hunter, a snail collector, a street performer, a blind man-all of whom view the anonymous traveler through their own lens. But her sacrifices won't be fully understood until she retells her own story, bringing the novel to its powerful conclusion.