Four stories: a mother loses her hold over her son; a husband discovers how blind he really is; a young man returns to reconcile with his lover and her father; and a young man swears an oath which he cannot hold.

Below, the white foam roared against the rock, digging and burrowing, it flooded back again and then raced up anew. Entire flocks of white seagulls whirled over the white spray, a sharp crag raised its dripping head from the whirlpool, and floating wreaths of kelp and seaweed swirled about down there in narrow circles. Here it must happen!

His bestsellers burnt and his grave desecrated by the Nazis, Georg Julius Leopold Engel (1866-1931) has been unfairly neglected by subsequent generations. A number of his novels were adapted into movies during his own lifetime, but his perceptive investigations of the human soul have for the most part not been translated into English until now.