professor theodore m. zak is an unhappy misfit in the arcane world of academia. although he does experience a certain amount of success early in his career, he is never completely accepted by his colleagues and is eventually undermined by more politically astute colleagues. throughout his life, he is disturbed by visions and dreams of the partitioning of poland by russia, prussia and austria in the last third of the eighteenth century. the main protagonist in these visions is tadeusz zakonski, count of opatow, the pampered scion of a powerful polish noble family. certain of zak's experiences conjure up visions of zakonski's life. the similarity, although not exact because ot the vastly different conditions of the two men's lives, are alike enough to be profoundly disturbing.