Cognastro is a symbol of the things we bring upon ourselves. Created in the unbearable fires of the glass maker, accompanied by the pleading incantation of Kabbalistic priests; he stands dispassionately by, watching—while we undergo the catharsis of our own destiny.
Conrad Lucas is a quiet courageous man, who, like Cognostro, was seared by the not so different fires of wartime experiences that disgraced and humiliated him. Surprised by the mysterious death of an old friend, he becomes enmeshed in a revealing adventure.
The police announce that Enrico Monteverdi, a shop-keep, and Meiken Pietry, a dancer half his age, were poisoned by her jealous husband. The police shut the case against Carl Pietry, because in 1924 America, insanity caused by infidelity is a reasonable defense for a crime of passion.
The story was sensationalized by the media, and in Conrad's view, maliciously distorted. Intimate knowledge about his friend Enrico, from a far–off time, reveals that Enrico could not consummate a love relationship.
Conrad Lucas resolves to expose the truth, but what exactly is the truth? How is it that his old friend, a purveyor of fine glass, could become so tragically entwined with a delicate ballerina? Thus Conrad plunges into a private investigation of the case. The reader must draw his own conclusions, for it seems, truth is in the eye of the beholder.
Conrad's odyssey leads to the enrichment of his own life, and the expiation of burdens. Only Cognostro could tell you what those were, and how they are not unlike our own—those that we must carry to our graves.
