 The story takes place in the sixties, at a children s pioneer league masquerade ball. The protagonist, still in his adolescence at the time - though when he is telling the story he is an adult already - prepares to emigrate, but before, for the last time he would like to be carefreely happy in the swirling crowd of the ball - to say farewell to everything he is leaving behind. And in this crowd, amidst his masqueraded mates, he seems to recognise his family: his parents, grandmother, and grandfather. As he recalls the events of the family s history, they come alive. The ambience of the party and the farewell evokes the well-known situations embedded in the family history from the sixties - the under blanket collective listening to Free Europe Radio, family card games, the fright of nightly searches by the authorities, childhood toys, the first car in the neighbourhood, the divorce trial, the moments of liberation and homecoming. Because of the animated memories and his impressions of the pioneer league ball, our hero decides, after all the pros and cons to stay. Because he is happy here on this ball and nothing can take this away or replace it.