A short, intense novella based on Lowry's own time in a New York hospital for alcoholism. Its protagonist, Bill Plantagenet, finds himself on a ward among other patients, each caught in their own troubles. Over a few days he struggles with fear, confusion and the strange human bonds that form in such a place. The prose is vivid and dreamlike, mixing sharp realism with symbolic imagery. It was assembled and published after Lowry's death, and offers a compact, harrowing introduction to his themes.