"Eduard, a German scientist and child of postwar Berlin, has long been settled in California with his American wife, Jenny, and their three children when he discovers that he has inherited an apartment building in the former East Berlin. Lured by the property and a promising new job offer, he returns to his native city.".

"But post-Communist Berlin is a surreal and baffling landscape to Eduard, who struggles to orient himself in a city where he feels uncannily at home and yet estranged. He finds his property occupied by a hostile troupe of squatters. On top of this, his marital relations have dipped toward freezing as his wife resists Eduard's efforts at repatriation.

Convinced that Jenny's distaste for Berlin is a rejection of Eduard himself, the neurotic hero launches a series of quixotic stunts in a mad scheme to win back his wife and at last come to terms with his home."--BOOK JACKET.