Samuel Mountjoy, artist, is promised torture in a prisoner-of-war camp, then locked in a cell in total darkness to wait. Sammy comes from his cell like Lazarus from the tomb, seeing infinity in a grain of sand and eternity in an hour. He sees, too, and here begins his purgation, what men might be, and what he for one has made of himself by gradual progressive choice. It sends him on a pilgrimage back through his life, seeking its point of departure.

(Key Words: Novels, Fiction, William Golding, Prisoner-Of-War, Camps, Wars, Nobel Prize Wnners).