These essays, diary entries, and letters document four agonizing years in the personal history of German writer Christa Wolf, while painting a vivid portrait of the present cultural and political situation in the former German Democratic Republic.

The most prominent writer of the German Democratic Republic and its most famous cultural export, Wolf was called East Germany's "Mother Confessor" and treated by the West German press as emblematic of GDR intellectuals. After reunification, she published the novella What Remains, which was bitterly attacked by the press as Wolf's belated attempt to establish herself as a victim of the Stasi (the GDR's secret police).

The criticism discredited Wolf in the eyes of many Germans and plunged her into a deep personal crisis. Parting from Phantoms shows Wolf coming to terms with her ambiguous past and unforgiving present.