The longtime editor of Die Zeit, in one of Germany's most eloquent voices of reason, presents the portraits of 17 men she has known, among them some of the quiet heroes of her youth who belonged to the Resistance against Hitler and were killed in the aftermath of the 20th of July, as well as Henry Kissinger, George Kennan, Helmut Schmidt and other present-day figures. A haunting evocation of the essence of men in past and present, written with moral passion and political realism; an example of a great forgotten art, the biographical essay as history.