The story of an East German woman who reached adolescence during World War II, embraced the new world order, had her enthusiasm and idealism gradually corroded by the crass materialists around her, married and had a family, and suddenly died a relatively young woman. Her heroism, that of the ordinary, intelligent and sensitive private person, becomes the story of a whole generation. The quest for Christa T. has no overt political theme, yet it is imbued with the awareness of political implications that only a socialist writer can have.