[2] It is the story of a day in the life of a nameless East German woman whose apartment and occupational activity are openly watched by the Stasi.
The story raises the subject of surveillance, particularly the feeling of paranoia, self-doubt, and the disturbances it causes in everyday life; symptoms of fear and nervousness, such as unrest, sleeplessness, weight-loss, and hair-loss.
No conversation can be held within her apartment without the telephone jack being pulled to prevent calls from having unwanted listeners.
Telephone calls are a façade, where only code words and petty banter take place.
By the end of the story she is very much influenced by the guests at her manuscript reading, young adults by whom the establishment feels threatened and remove by force.