The book can easily be called a moralistic fable or a parable on good and evil. It has such pearls of wisdom in it that I wanted to stop and write them down to read them later as one reads any scripture. For example: "Playing the part of a charitable soul was only for those who were afraid of taking a stand in life. It is always far easier to hear an insult and not retaliate than have the courage to fight back against someone stronger than yourself..."
The characters, although they are given specific customary traits for what they represent, are shown to have similar fallibilities and virtues. In short, they are all human.
The story, even though it has primary and secondary characters, is not about any one specific character, but more about the people of the village of Viscos, an imaginary small town with only one young person and no children. The story opens with Berta watching a stranger come into town. Berta is an old widow who is deemed a witch by the townspeople but is probably a psychic sage. Encouraged by the devil, the stranger is a wealthy man who suffered a tragedy and is out to find out the answer to the pessimistic philosophical questions that torment him. Miss Chantal Prym, a barmaid and a dreamer for better things, is the only young person in town whom the stranger wants to use in inciting the villagers to commit a murder so their town could take possession of the gold bars he has hidden in the woods.