In his masterful style, Florian Illies brings the 1930s to life, a decade of intense political and cultural tension. Jean-Paul Sartre enjoys cheesecake with Simone de Beauvoir at the Kranzler-Eck restaurant in Berlin. Henry Miller and Anaïs Nin experience passionate nights in Paris and "Quiet Days in Clichy." F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway delve into intense romances in New York. Bertolt Brecht and Helene Weigel flee into exile, just like Katia and Thomas Mann.

In 1933, the "Golden Twenties" abruptly come to an end. It is during this time that the National Socialists seize power in Germany, burn books, and begin violence against Jews. Florian Illies takes us back to an era of exceptional political catastrophe to tell the stories of the greatest lovers in cultural history. This is a thrilling and beautifully crafted journey into the past, which reads as a commentary on our uncertain present.