A novel about the journey of the narrator, his wife Lili and their cat Bébert through Germany in 1944 and 1945, as the Third Reich is falling apart. They move through bombed cities and crowded railways, heading for Denmark and trying to survive among suspicious officials, refugees and fellow exiles. It is the second of the late novels based on Céline's own wartime flight. The style is rapid and full of ellipses, mixing farce with real horror, and it gives a disorienting picture of a country under collapse.