Ilse Pagé

In 1924, Oskar Matzerath is born in the Free City of Danzig. At age three, he falls down a flight of stairs and stops growing. In 1939, World War II breaks out.

A serial killer who calls himself "The Laughing Corpse" dresses up in a skeleton costume and kills his victims with a poison-filled scorpion-shaped ring.

BERLIN, 1948. During the few days of the blockade, a teenager, a man, and a young woman constitute a gang. They profit from the fear, the disorder, and the black market, and commit many, many thefts.