Four men contend for superiority in a small, coastal town, and a young lady is caught in their midst … or are they caught by her?

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Thus two people parted, between whom a single, open word of truth and a discussion would have sufficed to forge the mutual trust still tighter and more intimately than before. Understanding and forgiveness, in that exists the lime and mortar which every marriage needs in order to construct a secure, comfortable house. Woe to the coexistence which lacks this binding agent. Their homestead disintegrates, and at their table sits an uncouth, strange fellow as guest. He stretches his feet out, bangs on the tabletop and sneers from his crooked mouth, Oh, you muttonhead, you indeed did not invite me, but I am not like that, I come by myself to such dear friends. I thrust stinging nettles and hemlock onto your plate, and after you have choked that down, then you can no longer dispense with me. I am mistrust.

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Georg Julius Leopold Engel (1866-1931) was a German author and dramatist some of whose works were banned and whose grave was desecrated by the Nazis. A number of his novels were bestsellers, and some were adapted into movies during his own lifetime.