Short stories that enter into the private world of each of its characters: Saul Morgenstein who is too smart for any psychiatrist to help, Wendy, who cannot face going to the hospital where her mother was taken after an accident and the glimpse of an ageing lover in the street. The second half of the book leaves America for the cities of Eastern Europe, as seen through the eyes of educated Americans who visit for conferences and are led into less easily expressed experiences.