Known as the Whistlers, German soldiers in a homefront hospital are trying to recover from throat injuries sustained in World War I, their labored breathing sounding like "the squeaking of mice." Pointer, shot when he was mistaken for an enemy sniper, clings to life, while his roommate Kollin continually dreams that he is cured, but wakes to the grim reality. The precarious balance of life in the hospital shifts when Harry, an English prisoner of war, joins the ranks of the Whistlers, and the men will be forced to confront—and perhaps overcome—their prejudices. "It is impossible to overstate the delicacy and originality of this work," wrote London's Spectator of this 1929 novel, which German poet and children's book author Paul Alverdes based on his own experiences in a military hospital.