With his wife away visiting her mother, Asa Laventhal is spending his time alone. One evening, attempting to find relief from a New York heat wave, he is accosted in a park near his home by a down-at-the-heels stranger who accusses hime of ruining his life. When his immediate, indignant denial has no effect, Laventhal gradually succumbs to the man's story and comes to believe that he has, in fact, caused the man irreparable damage. Unable to shake the stranger loose or stop his own self-doubts and suspicious, Laventhal descends into a nightmare of paranoia and fear. 'A kind of Dostoyevskian nightmare...written with unusual power and insight' -The New York Times-