An early novel set just after the First World War. Gabriel Dan, a soldier returning from Russian captivity, arrives in a large, crowded hotel in a Polish industrial city on his way home. The Savoy is a vertical world: wealthy guests live on the upper floors while the poor are crammed into attics. Waiting for money and news, he meets a cast of drifters, speculators and dreamers, amid rising social unrest. Roth gives a sharp, atmospheric picture of postwar Europe, with a sense of disorientation.