The air is cool and it grows dark as the Rhine calmly flows.
The picturesque town of Bacharach on the Rhine, 1817. Julie is a penniless orphan living with a foster family that shows her no love. The girl's beauty repeatedly causes jealousy and quarrels. The village priest even feels downright threatened by Julie and demands that she leave Bacharach, so her guardian decides to marry her off to the ferryman of Sankt Goar.
Simultaneously, near Karlsruhe in Knielingen, Johann is the son of an unsuccessful gold panner. After losing his family, he tries to make a living on the Great Rhine Straightening Project led by the ingenious engineer Tulla. Eventually, he signs up to become a skipper, navigating the meandering currents of the Rhine.
Julie and Johann meet and fall in love, yet their young happiness can not escape the ghosts of the past. Destiny, under the shadow of the mythical Loreley rock, takes its course.
"So vividly told that it almost feels as if you were there yourself." - SWR Kultur-Lesezeichen, Anna Charlotte Groos
"[Popp] touchingly links the fates of its protagonists with historical events and personalities" - Rhein-Lahn Zeitung, Till Kronsfoth
"The book [...] is lively and in large parts captivating, you hope and fear with the protagonists." - Die Rheinpfalz, Rita Reich
