In war-torn Europe, a strange man whose only world is books: Jacob Mendel.

In his world of books there were no wars, no misunderstandings, only endless knowledge of numbers, words, titles and names, and a desire to know more. Because only when all the elements of existence were printed in letters, collected and purified in a book, did they become real for him. But the ruthlessness and greed of war shattered the magic glasses through which he looked into this spiritual world.