Can a future be built out of the rubble? The bestselling author's touching new novel about friendship and the search for love in post-war Hamburg. Gert and Gisela. Two of many war children. When they meet in 1946 in the basement of a bombed-out house in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel, it is the beginning of a great friendship and perhaps a love. They only have each other in this post-war winter. They find shelter in the kitchen of Friede Wahrlich. She owns the house in Tornquiststraße. The greatest role of the former actress was to pretend so much love and loyalty to an admirer that he bequeathed the house to her. The first floor has been lost. But Friede is full of confidence to get the best out of this pile of shards. She has a knack for that. Slowly the light returns. But the past does not let go of the three in Tornquiststraße. What happened to Gisela's parents? Is Gert's little sister alive? And what became of the two men Friede once loved? How to live with the ghosts of the past who don't want to leave you? Three wonderful characters come together in Hamburg in the first post-war years. A novel that gives hope and immerses you in a time of shards. And of light.