Retired to the English countryside, aneighty-nine-year-old man, rumored to be a once-famous detective, is moreconcerned with his beekeeping than with his fellow man. Into his life wandersLinus Steinman, nine years old and mute, who has escaped from Nazi Germany withhis sole companion: an African gray parrot.
What is the meaning of the mysterious strings ofGerman numbers the bird spews out-a top-secret SS code? The keys to a series ofSwiss bank accounts? Or do they hold a significance both more prosaic and farmore sinister?
Though the solution may be beyond even the reach ofthe once-famous sleuth, the true story of the boy and his parrot is subtlyrevealed in a wrenching resolution.