Bernado hides in the shrubs as his parents and clan are systematiclly killed by a troop of Nazi soldiers during WW2. He wathches as his clan are dumped into a deep grave hidden in a glade in the forest. Bernaado finds his way to a small town where he is lucky to meet up with an old Gypsy woman who was friends with his parents. Zelda lives in a small tumbledown cottage with a menagerie of animals she has saved from being shot. Zelda is a healer and teaches Bernado to forage for plants and fungi to make her potions. After nearly a year Bernado returns home to find her and her large Irish Wolf Hound dog Pepi killed near her burning house by German soldiers looking for food. Bernado is caught stealin in the vilage and is taken to a large town where he is placed into an orphanage. The ploliceman assures Bernado that the priests and nuns running the orphanage are good people. They are far from this . One priest is a sadistic paedophile, the dother could not care. Bernado is raped three times by this priest. During the cold months many of the children died of the cold in the orphanage. Bernado stabs the priest in the face with a nail and manages to escape from the orphanage. He is now almost sixteen. He fids work in town clearing up bombed building sites. This is lucrative becase he finds many valuable items in these houses. He finds five stray dogs. One is the Image of Pepi the wolf hound. He teaches the dogs to perform tricks. Pepi rides a three wheel bicycle during the show. Bernado is making more money at his shows than he is making at the building sites. He is asked to join a circus which is travelling through Europe. There are amny pretty girls in the circus who take the now eighteen year old bernado under their wing to teach him the facts of sex. Bernado is a willing pupil. He teaces Shandor his large dog and Esmerelda a prety small one to steal from people walking at night after the circus. bernado is making a large amount of money from this ruse. Al comes unstuck when Shando attacks the ringmaster of the circus when he is violently whipping a young horse. Bernado ends up in Hospitalwith a broken arm . He quickly returns to the circus to find all oof his money and jewelry stolen. The ringmaster and circus strongman have the money. Bernado sees one of the gold coins he found when clearing the bricks from the bombed houses. In unusual circumstances Bernado and the ringmasters girl retrieve the money and leave the circus. They travel to Anzio in Italy to escape the cold. A semi ruined building seems to call to them . They purchase the building and restart the casino.