The novel 'The Impatience of the Heart', published in 1939, is the only completed novel by the Austrian author Stefan Zweig. The young lieutenant Anton Hofmiller is invited to the castle of the Hungarian magnate Lajos von Kékesfalva. There, he meets his paralyzed daughter Edith and develops affection for her, but above all, a deep, subtle pity. Hofmiller gives the incurably ill woman, who has fallen in love with him, hopes for a swift recovery and even becomes engaged to her. However, since he acts out of pity rather than love, disaster ensues. Out of fear of mockery and contempt, he does not acknowledge their relationship in public. When Edith learns that he denies their engagement to others, she throws herself from a tower. Overwhelmed by guilt, he plunges into a senseless flight into the battles of the beginning of World War I.