Written in the first phase of the Nobel Prize-winning author's career, his novel addresses the issue of responsibility, human solidarity, and a clearly formed worldview. Its protagonist, Sammy Mountjoy, a painter returning from German captivity, makes a dramatic discovery: his betrayed lover, Beatrice, has gone mad and has been a resident of a mental institution for seven years. Mountjoy feels that it was probably his betrayal that tipped Beatrice's mental balance, and he thinks about his life, searching for where he committed the fatal step that made Beatrice his victim.
A poignant poetic allegory about free will.