Herman Broder, a Holocaust survivor living in post-war New York, finds his fragile new life destabilized when he discovers his first wife, presumed dead, has survived the war.

Herman navigates a complex web of deception, maintaining a marriage to his savior in America while secretly supporting his first wife and pursuing an affair with a volatile mistress. His objective is to compartmentalize these disparate lives, yet the logical constraints of his lies create an unsustainable pressure. The narrative framework utilizes a third-person perspective to examine the psychological fragmentation of a man haunted by the past while attempting to inhabit a mundane present. He is opposed by the encroaching reality of his own moral compromises and the inevitable collision of his three separate domestic spheres.

Discussion often centers on the stark, unsentimental portrayal of human desperation and the moral complexities inherent in the survivor experience. Readers frequently highlight the author's ability to balance dark humor with profound existential dread, creating a narrative that avoids easy moral conclusions. Critics often note the claustrophobic atmosphere of the protagonist's life, which mirrors the internal chaos of his fractured identity. The work is widely recognized for its refusal to romanticize the aftermath of the Holocaust, instead focusing on the messy, often contradictory nature of human survival. Readers appreciate the sharp, precise prose that captures the tension between the characters' past traumas and their current, often self-destructive, choices.