My name is Mervin. My mother gave me my name. She used to say my name as if she was reading poetry or singing a song. I can still hear her beautiful voice in my ears.

Death. I used to hear about it but never was able to understand it was somewhere far from me. Others would could and did die everyday. But my mother...

I can divide my childhood into two parts: before Petra and after Petra. Every word that came out of my stepmother's mouth was an order. She was like the government; she had all these rules which I had to follow.

Then I was all alone. My days were full of self-pity. During those miserable times I would hide in a secluded place and wait. Maybe someone would take care of me or look for me or come and touch my head or hold my hand and lift me up.Hours would pass by and no one would search or ask for me or even come for me. I guess I was being childish. Who did I think was going to come? At the end I would get sick and tired of waiting so I would caress my own head hold my own hand and try to console myself. I would try my best to live with my broken heart blackened soul and shattered feelings.

...
Mervin is a story of the development of a young German officer during World War II.
We are taken in this life from his rose-colored years of naivete and innocence through his experience first hand with the destruction and atrocities of war.

We live his life with him as he grows up as a young man in Nazi Germany going to university in the midst of the rise of the Third Reich. We are with him when he falls in love for the first time and when he holds a weapon for the first time.

We are captured and taken to a prison camp along with him and likewise we too are able to make our escape when he does. We are next to him the first time he meets an American soldier. All of these events and images together make up the portrait of Mervin a young man who is seeking himself and finding meaning in a world which has been left in smoldering ruins around him. From those ruins like his country and his world he begins to rebuild himself.