A novel about Nikolai Tarabas, the son of a Russian-Jewish-region landowner, who is sent abroad as a young man after a scandal. The First World War and the Russian Revolution carry him back, and he rises to power as a violent, charismatic soldier in a small town on the border. Roth presents him as a restless and tormented figure, shaped by wars and upheavals that destroy old certainties. The book also shows the fate of the Jewish community around him, and carries a note of guilt and a longing for redemption.