In Bernhard's comedy, first published in 1985, the private scholar Atzbacher and the music philosopher Reger meet over two consecutive days at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Atzbacher seizes the unusual appointment as an opportunity to observe the contemplative Reger. The eighty-two-year-old, who has been writing music critiques for the Times from Vienna for thirty years, has perfected his approach to art observation at the Kunsthistorisches Museum: it consists of studying each artwork considered complete until its flaws are revealed.