Nine years later, he learns that the only woman he ever loved is no longer alive. Veltsaninov, at thirty-nine years old, already felt very tired, very "old." He had lived his life so intensely that now he hardly knew what was bothering him.
Everything was flowing so smoothly... And suddenly, out of nowhere, her husband appears! Memories flood his mind... Her in his arms... her laughing wickedly when he asks her to leave her husband and come with him abroad... her now dead...
This man, who had never counted on anything or anyone, now feels the claws of that love squeezing him, unable to predict what the... eternal husband has in store for him.
[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]
