A green-chewed woman hugs a man at ten station. Mr. and Mrs. Zumpen do business underwater. The blonde and thin Elsa Baskileit rehearses her flights in a room next to the kitchen. A sponsor takes all his little relatives to the fair and while he buys them ice creams, heaps of balloons and balls, he wonders which of those beautiful children will be called to succeed him, which of them will one day conceive the infallible plans of a black sheep.

"Obviously, I have been appointed to take care that the chain of black sheep of my family is not interrupted in my generation.", Assures the character of the story that gives title to the brief anthology presented to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Heinrich Böll, prize Nobel of Literature, 1972.