Max Brod is a well-connected writer and editor who saves his close friend's work from oblivion by breaking his promise to burn all unpublished papers after Franz's death; Max carries them to safety on the last train out of Prague at the onset of WW2.
Kafka has a turbulent relationship with his on and off fiancée Felice Bauer; after getting to know each other mainly through letters, their engagement is broken off, renewed, only to be broken off again.