This play, adapted from Leo Tolstoy's classic 1890 novel of the same name, focuses on the relationship between a husband and wife--Poznichev and his spouse, Laura. Poznichev gradually talks himself into believing that his young wife is having an affair with a friend of the family, in a sinister form of wish fulfillment. His insane jealousy destroys not just their relationship, but also each other. In the end he becomes a kind of Russian Othello, murdering the one he loves. The story gave Tolstoy--who was plagued with a troubled marriage of his own--an opportunity to express his view that chastity is the only proper relationship between men and women--that intimacy between men and women always results in social disaster, and that mankind can only perfect itself by rejecting sex altogether. His view was not widely adopted!