The events unfold in eighteenth-century Germany, chiefly in Frankfurt, Leipzig, and Strasbourg. Through recollections of family life, years of study, encounters, and personal experiences, the formation of a young man's worldview is revealed. His parents, his sister Cornelia, his friends, and his teachers, including Herder, play important roles in his life. Episodes from the past are interwoven with the social and cultural atmosphere of the time, showing how lived experience, memory, and imagination shape a person's inner world and creative thought.
