小说的主人公哈勒尔是个正直的作家，他鄙视现代社会生活方式，常常闭门不出，令人窒息的空气使他陷于精神分裂的境地。一天他偶尔读到一本《评荒原狼》的小书，顿觉大梦初醒，认为自己就是一个“人性”和“狼性”并存的荒原狼。之后他应邀参加聚会，发现与会者都有狭隘的民族主义观点，而他的反战言论遭到斥责，更觉自己孤独；回家时他遇到酒吧女郎赫尔米娜，获得肉欲欢乐；经赫尔米娜介绍他又结识了音乐人帕布洛和一姑娘玛丽亚，他在音乐和感官享受中忘却了一切烦恼和忧虑。但当他看到赫尔米娜和帕布洛亲近时，便“狼性”大发，出于嫉妒将赫尔米娜杀死。小说幻想色彩浓郁，象征意味深远，被认为有“超现实主义”风格；托马斯·曼称它为“德国的尤利西斯”。

A Soviet freight train's hijacking leads a haunted cop and a poor typist to uncover a political conspiracy amid the vice and glamour of 1929 Berlin.

人生的智慧就是如何尽量称心、愉快地度过一生这样一门艺术。关于这方面的教诲在哲学上可称为“幸福论”。因此，这本著作教导人们如何才能享有一个幸福的生存。 对于人的幸福起着首要关键作用的，是属于人的主体的美好素质，这些包括高贵的品格、良好的智力、愉快的性情和健康良好的体魄。 在这世上存在三种力：明智、力量和运气。我相信运气至为重要。

A school teacher discusses types of government with his class. His students find it too boring to repeatedly go over national socialism and believe that dictatorship cannot be established in modern Germany. He starts an experiment to show how easily the masses can become manipulated.

Two young men, Martin and Rudi, both suffering from terminal cancer, get to know each other in a hospital room. They drown their desperation in tequila and decide to take one last trip to the sea. Drunk and still in pajamas they steal the first fancy car they find, a 60's Mercedes convertible. The car happens to belong to a bunch of gangsters, which immediately start to chase it, since it contains more than the pistol Martin finds in the glove box.

本卷根据<马克思恩格斯全集>德文版并参照俄文版译出