Thomas Mann worked for almost 50 years on his novel „Bekenntnisse des Hochstaplers Felix Krull“. In no other work has the writer incorporated so many of his personal desires and fears. The film takes a look behind the façade of the celebrated narrator and at the same time into the dazzling world of his literary alter ego Felix Krull. While Krull magnetizes, deceives, seduces and presents himself as a successful imposter, Thomas Mann struggles with his inner conflicts. The intertwined lives of Mann and Krull combine to form a captivating journey through exile, self-dramatization, and the bittersweet art of feigning. From a kaleidoscope of exclusively original quotes and fictional scenes, a cinematic tribute is created with subtle irony to the person behind the myth of Thomas Mann and the trickster in each of us.