Tecia, the narrator, happens to run into an old friend, Janusz, who has recently lost his wife. The two old pals catch each other up on their lives. Over the course of the conversation, Tecia learns about the most painful episode in Janusz’s life: decades before, when he was engaged to a young woman named Agata, he inexplicably got cold feet and fled just before their wedding.

Tecia and Janusz get together often, and tell each other more and more about their lives. But things get awkward when the old man suddenly accuses Tecia of wanting to use what he has told her in confidence for a novel. A short time later, Janusz has a stroke. Tecia becomes friends with his daughter, who tells her that he had the stroke when he found out that Agata committed suicide.

Tecia Werbowski shares her emotions with subtle nuance in this short, profound and beautiful text. Her spare and thoughtful writing manages to explore the workings of her characters’secrets and lies. For the mysteries of the human soul are what interests her, along with the consequences of the violence that wracked Central Europe. An elder love story, set in Prague, and haunted by the specter of the Communist past.