Stefan Zweig's only completed novel is a gripping psychological portrait of an impossible love. He vividly depicts the painful longing of a girl excluded from life and the plight of a man who, unwittingly, triggers a tragedy. They meet for the first time at an evening gathering: the young, impoverished lieutenant Anton Hofmiller and Edith, the daughter of a wealthy landowner. With his invitation to dance, Hofmiller commits a consequential faux pas - for Edith is paralyzed. From that moment on, he suffers from a creeping poisoning of compassion. He becomes increasingly entangled in an unsolvable moral conflict, torn between the sincere desire to help, the pride of being needed, and the reluctance to take on responsibility. For Edith does not want pity; she wants to be loved. Stefan Zweig (1881-1942).