‘The Tin Drum’ is the first book by Günter Grass, one of the best known post-war German-language books, and the book for which Grass received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1999. On 16th October 2007 the writer celebrated his 80th birthday. Prior to this anniversary, director Wilfried Hauke spent three years following the creator of the book of the century to the original locations of the creation of the story of Oskar Matzerath in Poland, France and Germany. With fascinating images and rare footage the documentary gives an account of the circumstances surrounding the creation of the novel and how the released prisoner-of-war and autodidact Günter Grass became the influential ‘major writer’ that he is today. Furthermore the film examines the manner in which Günter Grass deals with his own SS past with the help of documents believed long-lost and numerous interviews with witnesses of the time.