The story begins with several obituary notices of the death of a current of seventeen-year-old Edgar Vibo. Then follows the dialogue of the mother and father of the deceased youth. The two broke up when their son was only five years old. Since then, his father never saw him, except for one case when his son came incognito. From the dialogue it turns out that for the time being, Edgar did very well in vocational school, and then suddenly, without getting along with the master educator, he left everything and ran away from home. He left the small provincial town of Mittenberg in Berlin and there, after hanging out for a while without work, he finally got a job as a painter in the repair and construction team. He settled in a dilapidated house intended for demolition. He did not give his mother news about himself, but only sent monologues recorded on tape to his friend Willy.

Edgar's father, who wants to know more about him, because his mother’s explanations do not satisfy him, asks those who have ever been friends with his son, or worked together, or just by chance met. So he finds the tape. And he learns about the life and problems of his son after his death. For example, that Edgar is proud and emphasizes more than once that he comes from the French Huguenots, that he is left-handed, who for a long time but tried unsuccessfully to make him right-handed, that he loves modern music, especially jazz, which of all trousers he prefers jeans, and in the field of literature, the novels Robinson Crusoe, The Suffering of Young Werther, and The Catcher in the Rye are above all.

Edgar Vibo, like Holden Caulfield from Salinger’s novel “The Catcher in the Rye,” is very vulnerable, he finds it difficult to find a common language with the people around him, he hates the falsity. The event brings him closer to the children from the kindergarten, which is located near his crumbling house. Having made friends with these children, Edgar discovers the abilities of a teacher. Handing each child a brush, he teaches their paintings, and together they create a kind of artistic canvas on the walls of the kindergarten. Edgar considers himself an artist, but, unfortunately, no one understands this, to people all his paintings seem like a daub. Well, as for the "suffering" of young Edgar Vibo, they begin when he meets a teacher of these children. No matter what her name really is, he christened her Charlotte (abbreviated as Shirley), named after the heroine of Goethe's novel, who is so dear to him to the point that he literally does not part with him even for a minute. Moreover, on the tape, which he sends to Friend Willy, Edgar often quotes Goethe, describing his feelings for Shirley, without giving a source, and mentally imagines how his friend pokes eyes from such a high-sounding syllable and in surprise. He quotes lines from the novel and in a conversation with Shirley.

The story repeats the situation described in Goethe's novel. Shirley, who is four years older than Edgar, is waiting for the bridegroom, whose name is Dieter, is about to return from the army. Finally, he is demobilized, enters the university in order to study German studies there, and marries Shirley. However, judging by some remarks briefly dropped by Edgar, he is interested not so much in philology as in the opportunity to pursue a career through public work. He’s boring, he’s too old, and it seems that Shirley’s love for him is beginning to weaken. Edgar visited them twice. Once he pulled a young married couple into nature to shoot from a blowgun. Dieter, however, did not enjoy this walk very much. Apparently, he began to be jealous of Shirley for Edgar. However, obeying a fit of anger, the next time he let them go alone on a motor boat. The weather was cloudy, then it poured rain, Shirley and Edgar got wet, froze, and at some moment, clinging to each other to keep warm, they could not resist the temptation. This meeting of them was the last.

It is to this period of the protagonist's life that the beginning of his work in the repair and construction team relates. As a young man he is not ordinary and is sometimes scratchy, grinding in to the work collective comes with a creak. It is especially difficult for him to get along with a harsh foreman. There is a conflict. The situation is saved by the elderly master Zaremba, more sensitive, wiser than the impetuous foreman. Zaremba understands that Edgar is not some kind of helipad who wants to get money without doing anything, but a serious young man with character. And an elderly worker convinces his colleagues about this. However, just at this time, Edgar had another problem. They finally decided to demolish the abandoned house in which he lived. Means, it was necessary to leave somewhere. But where? Not in Mittenberg. He was most afraid of this. Provincial towns are especially hard on the psyche of young men like Edgar. Meanwhile, time was running out. Buddy Willie gave Edgar his mother’s address, and she was about to come to visit him. The resolution of the problem occurred unexpectedly. While working in a team, Edgar drew attention to the imperfection of existing spray guns for spraying paint and wanted to make his colleagues happy with the invention of a more advanced apparatus. But only the device connected something wrong. Testing the device, he closed the current on himself ...