In a metropolis of the near future, where the government has long despaired of establishing order, where the population is terrorized by rats and gangs of refugees, where senseless violence reigns on the streets, a middle-aged, lonely woman suddenly mysteriously receives a twelve-year-old girl to raise, whom she must save from the impending general chaos. .One of the best works of Doris Lessing, which the author herself defined as “an attempt at creating an autobiography.”