Albert Corde, newspaperman turned academic, accompanies his wife to visit her dying mother in Bucharest. At home in Chicago, his magazine articles and involvement in a student murder scandal have him in the middle of a raging controversy.
A mid-twentieth-century Jewish man who has failed in all of his major professional and personal endeavors sets out on a philosophical letter writing campaign to anyone and everyone who will read his thoughts--friends, enemies, and strangers.
Henderson, a middle-aged American millionaire, travels to Africa in search of a more rewarding life, and finds himself regarded as a messiah when he manages to bring rain to a drought-stricken tribe.