Ulrich Hargenau has just returned to Würtenburg, his hometown in Germany, from a weekend with his brother Helmut, a famous architect, and his family. The Hargenau family is an illustrious one; Helmut has built around the world, Ulrich von Hargenau, Sr., tried to kill Adolf Hitler, and their ancestor is Albrecht Dürer. Ulrich, a writer, is the black sheep. His testimony ensured that many of his friends, the Einzig Gruppe, were recently convicted for a left-wing terror attack—his wife, Paula, only narrowly escaped to Geneva. One day, a young American woman named Daphne moves into the apartment above Ulrich —she is studying philosophy at the university under Klude, an eminent thinker, and teaching English on the side. After they run into one another a few times, they begin to spend time together. Though not a love interest, she so fascinates him that he begins to rewrite his current novel to tell a version of their story. Meanwhile, an explosion destroys the town's new police station, which Helmut designed. Two people die. Daphne vanishes after, in one weekend, she and Ulrich make love and visit Helmut's family together. Ulrich pursues her to Geneva, where he works on his book, now firmly entrenched in his experiences with Daphne, takes interviews about his work, and hunts for her and Paula. After another of Helmut's buildings suffers a terrorist attack, he hears from his brother that Daphne was using a fake name. More defeated than perplexed, Ulrich hangs up and strides to the window. This, he muses, is Switzerland.