In this affecting moral fable, young August Zollinger leaves his hometown in order to save his own life, undertaking a seven-year, solitary journey of adventure and discovery that will see him try his hand at all manner of different jobs. What begins as a bitter exile ultimately becomes a voyage of enlightenment: he comes to know true love in the tiny lodge of a train station, where he receives a daily telephone call from a mysterious woman; he relishes the deepest and most loyal friendship and camaraderie in the ranks of the army; and he discovers the mysteries of nature in the ethereal majesty of the forest. Above all, however, he learns to value the inherent dignity of even the humblest professions. It is the wisdom gained during this journey that allows August to return to his village, where he can now become the printer he had always dreamed of being as a child.