After being drawn into the Second World War to command retreating German forces despite his anti-Nazi feelings, Faehmel struggles to re-establish a normal life at war's end by creating a rigorous routine for himself, which includes a daily game of billiards.

Heinrich Theodor Böll was a German writer. Considered one of Germany's foremost post-World War II writers, Böll is a recipient of the Georg Büchner Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature.