A Man's Girlhood examines in comic form the conundrums of intersexuality. Depicts the memories of the author, published in 1907 as an anonymous biography under the pseudonym NOBody, but was, following the taste of the time, dramatically oversubscribed. A child born without a clear gender is raised by the father as a boy, later by the uncle as a girl and dissected after death.

In 18th century Europe, King Friedrich II of Prussia leads his army through the seven-years-war with neighboring states, and after numerous near defeats, eventually brings a victorious army back to Berlin.

Journeyman craftsman Paul Paulsen is in his third year of traveling and lives far from his North German homeland in a small village in Central Germany. During a winter storm, he sees a young woman near his door, demanding entry to the prison, but being turned away by the warden. Paul follows the woman and takes her to his landlady's apartment. He recognizes her as Lisei, the daughter of a puppeteer, whom he had met twelve years earlier. He looks back.

A woman steals money from her banker husband but her lover, a baron, is jailed.He escapes and under a new identity is a circus daredevil but she threatens him and his new sweetheart.