"In this new novel from the author of The ""Alchemist,"" a stranger arrives in a small mountain village. Striking up a friendship with a young woman named Miss ""Prym,"" he tests on her the proposition that ""Given"" the right set of ""circumstances,"" every human being on this earth would be willing to commit ""evil."" Should Miss Prym prove him ""right,"" all her dreams would come TRUE - at the cost of her own deep beliefs about right and wrong."