The protagonist of the book is Walter Faber, a middle-class UNESCO engineer who thinks the universe is logical and measured. Strange occurrences threaten his sense of security. He makes an impossible emergency landing in the Mexican desert, his friend Joachim hangs himself in the forest, he falls in love with a woman who dies of a concussion, and he engages in an incestuous relationship. Finally, stomach cancer strikes Faber, but it is too late for him to make any changes to his course of action.