Wim Knaup has a rough life in Ruhenheim, dealing with constant bullying from neighborhood kids—mostly because his father is a hopeless drunk. He works as a pageboy at Hotel Versteck under Mr. Klaus Poppe, running errands for whatever wages he can earn. The problem is, most of that money goes straight to supporting his father's drinking habit, which only makes the bullying worse. The other kids steal from him regularly, and insults about his father get under his skin, even when they're not entirely wrong.
One day, after a particularly rough encounter with his tormentors, a stranger approaches him on the road and asks something that sticks with him: "Hey boy, don't you hate them? Don't you hate them enough to kill them?"
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