On a dark railway bridge, Korin is about to be attacked and robbed by violent teenagers. Desperate, maddened at times, but always empathetic, he has discovered in the archives of a small Hungarian town an ancient manuscript of surprising beauty: it tells the epic story of two comrades who struggle to return home after the war. Korin is determined to commit suicide, but before doing so he believes that he must flee to New York with the precious manuscript and preserve it for eternity by posting it on a web. Following Korin obsessively through the streets of New York, the novel recounts his encounters with the various human types that populate a world torn between vice and mysterious beauty.