Guy Jerald was living proof of the American Dream come true - a man who had built an empire, out of a worthless scrap of farmland, a man who had risen from the wrong side of the tracks to move gracefully within the inner circles of the very rich.
In her new novel, one of America's most renowned writers turns her skillful eye onto the contemporary scene in a 'story about power and the struggle for power, about the treachery of dreams and the tyranny of duty, about a man who gains the whole world, but loses his own soul - almost. For at the prime of his life, Guy Jerald tries to kill himself.
Now confined to a luxurious sanitarium, though clearly not insane, Guy refuses to speak to anyone even his wife and family. It is an old friend, English psychiatrist James Meyer, who is finally able to break through Guy's suffering and help him face the choice which has threatened his existence. A choice between the self he has created and the self he is running from, between a psychologically binding marriage and the woman he truly loves. As he attempts to uncover the source of his friend's agony, James is forced to come to terms with his own unfulfilled hopes and meet the greatest challenge of his life.