This autobiography recounts the life of the German actor Klaus Kinski. It tells of his tortured childhood in the poverty of pre-war Berlin - starving, stealing, perpetually frost-bitten - his conscription, at the age of 16, into the German army, the last of World War II, and on through his rise to international stardom as a film actor. His Casanovian pursuit of sex (often with under-age girls) is chronicled in graphic detail. He is best known for his performances in the Werner Herzog films, such as Fitzcarraldo and Aguirre Wrath of God.