David Kelsey, a young scientist, has an unyielding conviction that life will turn out all right for him; he just has to fix the Situation: he is in love with a married woman. Obsessed with Annabelle and the life he has imagined for them - including the fully furnished cabin he maintains for her - David prepares to win her over, whatever it takes. In this riveting tale of a deluded loner, Patricia Highsmith reveals her uncanny ability to draw out the secret obsessions that overwhelm the human heart.