The strange, strange story of Kaspar Hauser. »

He stumbles into Nuremburg at 16, with a command of about 10 German words — half of which he only knows by rote. He learns to speak, and tells of being raised in horrific conditions: total darkness, no human contact.

The people who take him in — one after another, a long string of them — each begin to suspect something’s up, though. Hauser doesn’t seem to be telling the whole truth.

Factor in popular theories of abandonment by irresponsible royals, the possibility of a massive hoax, and modern DNA analysis… and you’ve got a great (if confusing) story.