The setting is a boys' boarding school in Germany, sometime in the latter 20th century. 14 year-old Thomas Werner falls from a lonely pedestrian overpass to his death, immediately after sending a single, tragic letter to a schoolmate. Thus begins the legendary and enigmatic The Heart of Thomas. Inspired by Jean Delannoy's 1960 film, Les Amities Particulieres, the result of this effort was a complex and compelling shojo manga that ranks as one of the all-time greats since its original inception in 1974.