Edward is a successful virologist - working, traveling, affairs - Ruth is fifteen years younger and a sociology student. He hopelessly falls in love with her, and they become a couple and get married. But here, where many novels end, Edward's true story begins. The self-assured scientist, who personally kills the test animals when it serves his career, cannot withstand Ruth's moral demands. Edward realizes that his better self has been left behind in his rapid rise - forever? Uncompromising, sensitive, and precise, Tommy Wieringa tells the story of the great love that befalls a man in the middle of life and questions his entire being.