Trygve Soren Napoli is a ten-year-old just beginning to realise that he is alone in the world. Even the cousin he looks up to calls him crazy. He doesn't have a father, but then the country is in the middle of the biggest war ever, and a lot of kids are missing dads. His uncle drinks, and Trygve sees him hit Aunt Ginger, but then it was him who gave him the roll of zinc pennies - and Uncle Gerald is the one who manages to lay hand on the valuable copper wire needed to build an antenna for Trygve's shortwave radio, his one sure link to the external world.