"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be" - This is the moral of the story that the author states in the introduction.Mother Night is an account of the confessions of Howard. W. Campbell Jr. from a prison in old Jerusalem in the year 1961 where he awaits a fair trial for his war crimes.
The story starts when he introduces himself as an American by birth, a Nazi by reputation and a nationless person by inclination. What he missed, however was that he was also secretly a US spy. His secret unknown not just to the world but his parents and even his wife. The reader delves into the life of Howard through his own account where he sketches his biography from his birth in 1912 to his coming to the jail of Israel and more.
