With an open mind and the meticulousness of a scientist, Professor Tarantoga meets his strange guest, who has made contact with him from a psychiatric institution. The eccentric introduces himself as Novak on one occasion and Hippekorn on another. Hippekorn comes from the future, more precisely from the second half of the 35th century. Professor Tarantoga patiently tries to find out whether the man is simply crazy or actually an alien from another time and world.
Against the historical background of the occupation of Paris by the German Wehrmacht, the story of a German émigré child who finds shelter with a French working-class family is told.
