The main character of this short novel, a tycoon, is a typical example of the employee ultra-ambitious, the unincorporated upstart (`personal ethics would differ in any way from the world of immorality in which he lived. ')
For F. Dürrenmatt, our universe, ostensibly respectable, is a world of facades, a world without justice and therefore without sanctions: `There remains little more than a few stories where even timidly punches a semblance of human reality through the anonymous someone's face. ' Only bad luck will result in `universal justice and punishment ', as here in this fierce tragicomedy.
The tycoon lets bamboozled by a trinity of pensioners ('men who know the secret of the sublime mysteries of Justice') to participate in their little game d`un `session in court ', which in the same time as of great food, try to clarify the truth and the true motives hidden behind life and 'secretive behavior' of `the defendant '.
In this humorous / dramatic narrative, F. Dürrenmatt reveals the cynicism behind the 'human reality', represented here by a man whose life was apparently a great success.
Highly recommended reading.