1955, in a suburb near New York: Behind the well-kept front yard, a marital war rages. Frank and April Wheeler, once a young, hopeful, and promising couple, are on the verge of collapse under the pressure of societal expectations for a happy marriage and a successful career. Harmless remarks ignite into tirades of hatred and escalate into threatening silence. Richard Yates' debut novel made him instantly famous in the USA and also sparked a Yates fever in Germany years after the author's death. "The intense psychological portrait of a marriage that carries the virus of failure from the very beginning. (...) A tragedy behind pastel-colored facades." Brigitte.