Can I get a technical explanation on the following error

[grocery_stocker]

On May 24, 11:47 am, Hans Müller <heint... at web.de> wrote:
> Try this:
>
> print "\\"
>
> \ is the escape character, it masks the meaning of the next chararcter.
>
> If you write print "\" python tries to print " (the meaning of " as
> the string delimiter is beeing masked) and finds no closing "
> This is why you got the error.
>

So something like

"\"

changes the meaning of " ? How? Does it just shift the ASCII bit(s)?