"Searingly hot in summer, bitterly cold in winter, the ancestral estate of the Golovlyov family is the end of the road. There Arina Petrovna rules over her servants and family with an iron hand - until she loses power to her son Porphyry. One of the most memorable monsters in all of world literature, Porphyry is a perfect hypocrite and indefatigable schemer who preys remorselessly on everyone who comes near him.

Yet in the end even he is destroyed in the emotional and spiritual wasteland that is life at Golovlyovo."--BOOK JACKET.