As with some other of Fontane's novels (including Effi Briest), its heroine is believed to be based roughly on a real person whose demise Fontane heard about, and it deals delicately with topics that, at the time it was written, were close to being taboo, including adultery and suicide.

The first translation, by Douglas Parmée, was published in 1963 as Beyond Recall and republished in 2011 by New York Review of Books as Irretrievable.

There is a German TV movie based on the novel, directed by Falk Harnack and first broadcast in 1968.

Count Helmuth Holk lives with his countess Christine and their two children in a lonely valley.

His marriage with Christine begins to seem unbearably dull and he rashly seeks a divorce before realizing that Ebba's attentions are not serious.