This book paints a frank picture of a young man living in difficult times. In spite of this, he manages to have fun. As a young boy he was a slow learner, quite bad in school. Then, at age 18, he had a kind of awakening and from then on "took off". His first love ended in tragedy when he discovered that he could not live with a girl with mental problems. In spite of this, he studied at a university in Berlin and became a physicist. He used a chance encounter with American scientists to apply for a job in the USA at the world famous Bell Laboratories. There, he flourished, had a wonderful life, married a wonderful girl and lived happily ever after.