Jules Epstein has vanished from the world, last seen in the Judean foothills. How a man of his vigour could disappear is an enigma.
Over a year earlier, following the death of his parents, Epstein began his transformation, shedding the possessions he had spent a lifetime accumulating - a watch here, an Old Master there - before travelling from New York to Tel Aviv and checking into the Hilton, intending to do something to commemorate his mother and father.
Meanwhile, a novelist leaves her husband and children behind in Brooklyn and arrives at the same hotel, hoping that the view of the pool she used to dive into as a child will unlock her writer's block. But when a retired professor recruits her for an intriguing project involving Kafka, she is drawn into a mystery that will change her in unimaginable ways.
