Faced with the emptiness and lack of rational explanation for many of the problems of modern life, it sometimes seems that the only escape is to seek refuge in instinct... and instincts lead us to sex. At any rate, this is the escape that the protagonists find in this story: sex in the guise of an electrical discharge, so that they can go on living, the manipulation of others as a means of warding off impotence and reaffirming personalities wounded by solitude. But the result is ephemeral and the experience leads to unforeseen consequences.