One - The SheikArt visits his father, Vladek, in Rego Park, New York, after being away for about two years. Vladek married Mala after Art's mother's suicide. Art convinces Vladek to start telling him his life story, which Art hopes to use for a book. Vladek begins when he was a young man working in the textile industry near Czestochowa, Poland. He has an affair with the beautiful Lucia before being introduced to Anna Zylberberg. Anna (Anja) comes from a wealthy family and is well educated but nervous and sickly. Vladek and Anja get married in 1937 and Vladek moves to the city of Sosnowiec, Anja's hometown. Two: The HoneymoonArt visits her father in Rego Park several times over the next few months. Vladek is focused on the many pills he takes and his poor health. The art focuses on trying to get the details of Vladek's story. The family has been prosperous since Anja's father gave them money to invest in a textile factory. Vladek and Anja have a son, Richlieu, but after his birth Anja suffers from deep depression. Vladek accompanies her to a sanatorium in Czechoslovakia, where she will have to be treated. During the journey to the sanatorium they see a Nazi banner and hear about the first actions against the Jews. Anja recovers from depression and they return to Poland only to find that their factory has been robbed. Anja's father helps them financially and for a while their life goes well. But in August 1939, Vladek was drafted into the Polish army and sent to fight the Germans. Three - Prisoner of War During further visits to his father, Art hears Vladek talk about his service in the Polish army. Vladek has little training and only shoots the gun for show, but manages to kill a German soldier. He is later taken prisoner by the Germans and sent to a prison camp in Germany where he cleans the stables. It is cold and the Jewish prisoners are treated worse than other Polish prisoners, but Vladek volunteers to work for the German soldiers and this way gets additional food and warmth. He has a dream in which his grandfather appears to him and tells him that he will be free on a specific day in the future. The dream comes true and Vladek is sent back to Poland where the Jewish authorities manage to put him in contact with a friend of his family..