The return of the troops from the front forms a close unity with the previous installment of this cycle, The People Betrayed, and in them Döblin shows a Berlin where some inhabitants live in miserable conditions, while others know how to take advantage of the opportunities that war offers unscrupulous merchants, large and small swindlers, and also political opportunists. The shock represents for those who return from the war front the attempt to integrate into a society so changed compared to the one they left behind. These are small personal stories that form a splendid mosaic in which, in perspective, we can also see the negotiation and the immediate consequences of the Treaty of Versailles, which will soon completely change the situation throughout Europe.