It tells the story of a young woman who undergoes three major shocks at once: the husband she loves is found dead; it was suicide; and his whole life outside their marriage was a fraud.
She teaches in a school and he is studying medicine at the university, having handed in his thesis to Professor Gellendorf and secured a job in Marseille.
Then they give her his personal effects, minus the phone, and she has to organise a funeral for the repatriated body.
Physically he reminds her of Paul and, persuading him back to her flat, she gets into bed and tells him to join her.
He is completely unaware that she has just lost her husband and she never asks about his life (he has an affectionate girl friend who is badly hurt at losing him).