Helmut Halm, known from "The Fleeting Horse," accepts an offer for a guest professorship in California. He attempts to make a leap forward, believing that through emigration he can achieve emancipation. He sets out to gain weight and significance in his personality. However, even in America, he turns everything against himself once again. In a fit of bravado, Halm throws himself into the waves at the very beginning of his stay in California and narrowly escapes death. His love for a student puts him, a happily married man, in the wrong, making him vulnerable.