A short novel about Andreas Pum, a one-legged veteran of the First World War who earns a modest living playing a barrel organ in the streets of Vienna. Proud of his place as a respectable, law-abiding citizen, he trusts authority and the order of society. Then a chance incident brings him into conflict with the law, and his belief in the world's fairness is shaken. Roth writes with irony and compassion about a small man caught up in a harsh postwar society.