A scientist, inventor of the "ray of life", is found murdered. The perpetrators are Arachne and the inventor's former assistant, Mona. However, the two naive servants of the deceased took the blueprints of his invention with them when they left: Kokkovios and Sparos. Arachne and her gang constantly...
The story of a besieged country in wartime and the effect of such on the children. Told in flashback by a young man after the war, he tells how he and his orphaned sister can barely subsist and he has become a petty thief. He comes across a group of boys, the "Barefoot Batallion", who steal food...
