Children of No Man's Land

A restless summer gathers at a Swiss resort, where the aging patriarch Hermann Marcus watches his children and grandchildren drift toward a freedom he barely understands. His son Ferdinand urges his sister Stella to send their sister‑in‑law away for a “good time,” while hidden resentments about obedience, duty, and the fading grip of an old generation simmer beneath polite conversation.

In the same circle, teenage Richard Marcus finds himself tangled in a sharp‑tongued rivalry with Lothar von Relling, a German youth who challenges his English pride over Shakespeare and Goethe. Their debates crack open larger questions about identity, love, and what it means to belong to a land that feels both distant and intoxicating. As the summer heat presses on, the young characters teeter between the safety of family expectations and the lure of uncharted, perhaps reckless, adventures.