Lili Toffler is a former East Berlin resident whom Nick Knight first met in 1966. Although they have not seen each other since, they remain good friends. In 1966, Lili is working as a custodian in State Archive No. 7 with her father and brother when Nick comes secretly to the state library searching for an ancient book called the Abarat. At first she, like her father and brother, believes that he must be either an American spy or a member of the secret police trying to trap them. Nevertheless, they stifle their suspicions and agree to help him because he claims to know the whereabouts of the catacombs under the old Bergen Church, which could be the key to the Toffler family's escape under the Berlin Wall to freedom in the West.