The story, published by Peter Handke in 1987, takes place on a December afternoon. The work at the desk is finished for the day and will not resume until the next morning: a period in between. During this time, nothing special happens, nothing extraordinary (after all, the first snow of the year falls). Yet it is precisely this still unclouded by meanings that the writer focuses on as he walks from his desk into the city, from its center to its periphery, and on his way home.