Wine and hors d'oeuvres reflect the lively atmosphere at the office as the company awaits the return of its brilliant head of marketing, Gehrer, from Harvard. And today is his 35th birthday! Gehrer has indeed arrived at Zurich airport, but he was not on the plane from Boston. He has been in India. And on this cold February day, he is not sitting in his office, but on a bench by the lake, taking stock, engaged in a monologue of disarming accuracy. What does life's zenith have in store? Who is he, at 35? And why does everything suddenly seem so different? Then the insight: there is nothing Gehrer would like more than to rid himself of Gehrer, to become someone else. And here his problem begins. Rolf Dobelli's prose is racy and funny. His gift for observation and his discerning intellect – at times poetic, ironic and sarcastic – are reminiscent of Max Frisch.