at the beginning of volume 3 of else ury's , "nesthäkchen im kinderheim," published 1915/1921 (nesthäkchen in the children’s sanitorium), anne marie braun is ten years old. she is a lively child and a good student. shortly before her birthday, she develops a high fever at school. she has been inadvertently infected with scarlet fever by her father, a doctor in charlottenburg (berlin), who has just examined children with scarlet fever. after a long recovery time in the private clinic of her father, anne marie is still very weak. therefore, she is sent by her parents to recover for a year in the children's sanitorium "villa daheim" in wittdün on the north sea island amrum, which is managed by a sea captain's widow mrs. clarsen and her sister lina. (the captain's ship was docked in norddorf, an actual place. there was in norddorf a port on the kniepsand side, and also an island railway at that time on amrum.) life on the island, the landscape and manners, dress and speech, are described in detail. the north germans in the story speak plattdeutsch (low german), which ury transliterates, with a german translation of some words in parentheses. anne marie makes friends with the naughty boy peter, who misbehaves again and again. the two walk together to seek wealth and swords in the mud, stray off the path, and get into a storm surge. but they find (albeit with difficulty) their way out of the dangerous situation. anne marie befriends a good girl, gerda. gerda has a bad leg due to a knee joint problem. another counterpoint to peter (who is a replacement for anne marie's wild brother klaus in this part of the novel) is kurt, whom she already met in berlin in the hospital. kurt is in a wheelchair, but manages with much patience and anne marie's help, to relearn how to walk. at the end of the story the first world war breaks out. anne marie is now eleven years old. head over heels the sanitorium's guests flee the island. anne marie's doll gerda falls off the pier into the water. the scene has a symbolic meaning: anne marie's childhood is over.