Lajos, the paramount love in Eszter's life, returns to Budapest. Lajos, who ultimately married her sister Vilma, Lajos, who took everyhting from her with seduction, skill and subtle deception. And yet: even in the hour of reckoning, despite all good intentions, for Eszter he is "the only man I have loved".

Exploited, betrayed, and yet affectionate for a man who is a rascal with an uncontrolled compulsion to tell porky-pies and a genius of falsehood, Eszter sees through him from the first moment.

The novel covers the few hours of their encounter, drawing the emotional worlds of both main characters insistently. The reader is trapped in a fine web of hopes, expectations, lies and deceit, nobody is condemned, no one is demonized and all that remains is the question of what love endures, what love gets over with and what it excuses.