Patrice Periot, a professor of biology, is a widower with four grown up children. Late in life he becomes involved with the Communist party which draws him into controversy and unwanted publicity.
There are also tensions at home between his Christian son and his Communist daughter and a sharp inner conflict develops between Periot's private and public lives which he is unable to resolve by the light of conscience.
This novel, by French author Georges Duhamel (1884 -1966), was first published in French in 1950 as Le Voyage de Patrice Périot.
