Paul is diagnosed with thyroid cancer and, after surgery and subsequent radiation treatment, has to live quarantined at his parents' place for some time.

[1] After Paul Bannerman, an ecologist, is diagnosed with thyroid cancer and receives an operation, he is left radioactive.

While he is isolated, he becomes unhappy with his wife, who is a marketing executive, as he sees her as lacking convictions and enabling those he opposes as an environmentalist.

Harrison also criticized Gordimer's failure to focus on the particular details of Bannerman's struggle due to her attempt to provide a universally applicable narrative about illness.

Gordimer was also faulted for failing to adequately flesh out the personalities of the novel's characters.