In a world that has moved on, two men sit in the shadows of the past. One, frail and forgetful, speaks of things best left unsaid. The other, powerful yet unknowingly adrift, listens—and feels something crack beneath his carefully preserved sense of control. The war took their sons, but time has taken something else, something harder to name.
In the quiet of an office where authority once meant everything, grief lingers like dust on old furniture. A casual visit, a few words spoken in passing, and suddenly, the weight of loss is too heavy to ignore. But the mind is a master of avoidance, and the heart? The heart plays its own cruel tricks.
Then, a tiny presence—a mere insect—appears, drawing the eye, demanding attention. It is nothing, and yet, it is everything. A test. A distraction. A revelation. In a moment both meaningless and profound, the illusion of power meets the reality of fate. And in the end, what remains? Memory, sorrow, or simply... nothing at all?
Mansfield's chilling masterpiece is a meditation on war, grief, and loss.