[1] In 2016, this novel was reissued in English under the title The Hand, newly translated by Linda Coverdale (ISBN 9780241284650).

Donald Dodd is a lawyer in Brentwood, Connecticut; his friend Ray Sanders, whom he has known since they were at Yale University together, is a partner in a public-relations organization in Madison Avenue.

There is a blizzard on the way back; the car gets stuck in snow about a mile from the Dodds' home Yellow Rock Farm, and they walk the rest of the way.

Donald tells the others he will go and look for him; instead, he sits in the barn next to the house and smokes cigarettes, feeling that in doing so he has killed Ray.

Arriving at her apartment in Sutton Place, Manhattan, they immediately begin a passionate affair.

Between visits to New York, where Mona has moved to a smaller apartment, his family life with Isabel and their daughters Mildred and Cecilia continues.

During one visit to New York, Mona tells him she is going to marry John Falk, a television producer.

Its first production, directed by Robert Icke, ran from 6 October 2016 to 17 January 2017 at the Lyttelton Theatre, London; it featured Mark Strong as Donald Dodd, Hope Davis as his wife Ingrid and Elizabeth Debicki as Mona Sanders.