"There was a man named Webster. So begins this story of a man who believed the human body to be the house of life within which is a deep well full of dark and hidden things held down by a heavy iron lid that must be torn open. This Webster, a respectable manufacturer of washing machines in a Middle Western industrial town, on the threshold of middle-age, suddenly makes an about-face upon his entire life, makes love to his secretary and goes away with her, leaving behind him his business, his wife and his young daughter."--Jacket