Vivian Sinclair leaves Maine behind to move to Cripple Creek, Colorado, where her sisters live, but she finds it difficult to leave the mistakes of her past behind, especially when the only job that she can find is in a brothel.

The protagonist of this story, Vitangelo Moscarda, called Gengè by his wife, is an ordinary person, who inherited his father's bank as a young man and lives on an annuity. One day, however, following the observation by his wife who tells him that his nose is slightly crooked, he begins to have an identity crisis, and realizes that he is not unique. He therefore decides to change his life by renouncing his moneylender job even at the cost of his economic...