Suddenly, and out of nowhere, the little girl Momo appears in the ruins of an old amphitheatre in a village somewhere in Italy. She only owns what she finds or what she is endowed with. And she has an extraordinary talent: she has always time and is a wonderful listener. Therefore, she has soon made a lot of friends in the village, amongst them are Gigi, the tour guide, and Beppo, the sweeper.

Momo could not be happier, but then, one day, mysterious grey men appear in the little village. They pretend to be agents of a "time savings bank" but in truth are out for the precious lifetime of the people. Quickly, the adults are persuaded to save time. Eventually, nobody has got time anymore, everything gets faster and louder. Only Momo is not ‘infected‘ by it. With her fortrightness, she even draws an awful secret from one of the grey men.


A race for time begins, which Momo can only win if she succeeds to find Mister Hora, the Lord of Time, and to bring the stolen time back to the people. But until then, Momo has an adventurous and lonely way to go because, meanwhile, also her friends can only think of how to save the most time…


Michael Ende (1929-1995) is one of the best-known German writers and at the same time one of the most versatile authors. Amongst books for children and young adults, he wrote poetic texts and books for adults, he composed theatre plays and poems and many of his books were filmed or adapted for TV and Radio. In 1960, the book "Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver" promoted his breakthrough as a writer of children’s literature. He won many German and international prizes for his literary works. His books werde translated into more than 45 languages.