This novel is about an Englishman who kills someone ambiguously. He may, or may not, have intended to do so. But he is not prosecuted by the police. Though he does suffer remorse. He resigns from his job, sells his flat and leaves his fiancée. And he leaves England. He travels through Italy in search of a former girlfriend; and he only comes to a halt when he reaches the far north-west of Sicily. And there he rents a house in a village and writes about his life.