East Germany's secret police were convinced that writers were embedding subversive messages in their work. This reveals how a group of soldiers had monthly meetings to learn how to write lyrical verse, weaponising poetry in the struggle against the class enemy. From old files to mouldy basements, a literary detective story with spies who were moulded into poets; poets who spied on fellow writers. A little-known story of the famously ruthless intelligence agency's obsession with literature.