We follow their relationship from courtship to marriage, pregnancy and the birth of their son, through a slow decline to Hannah's nervous breakdown. She recovers a bit, her husband is drafted for a few weeks during the 1956 war. Their relationship continues to erode as she turns inward again. She becomes pregnant a second time, he begins to see another woman, she gives herself over completely to her inner world, and the book ends. The mood is elegiac but never lachrymose.
Heavy arches stand between the alley and the low clouds.
The alley is a blind alley. Time condenses and collects in the hollows of the stones. A drowsy watchman, an elderly civilian called up for civil defense, stands propped against a wall. Muted chimes echo from a distant bell. . . . An Orthodox boy stands at a window, his earlocks flowing down his pallid cheeks.