4 ideas
Arthur Rowe poisoned his terminally ill wife because he could not bear her suffering. He was tried, briefly confined to an asylum, and then released into Blitz-era London. At a charity fete, a fortune-teller mistakes him for a Nazi agent and tells him the weight of a cake, which he then wins; the cake conceals microfilm, and his refusal to hand it over draws him into a murderous espionage ring run partly through a refugee charity.
The novel argues that pity is often the pitier's inability to endure his own discomfort at another's pain, not concern for the sufferer. Because it cannot tolerate that pain, pity will override the other person's wishes and even end their life. Pity also leaves the pitier open to manipulation, since anyone who performs suffering can steer him.
A bomb blast erases Rowe's memory, and as 'Richard Digby' he becomes cheerful, brave and uncomplicated, because the guilt that shaped his character is gone. Recovering his memory means taking back both his identity and his crime. The episode implies that the self is built from what we remember having done, and that innocence is only an absence of remembered guilt.
The novel ends with Rowe and Anna each hiding a painful truth from the other so they can stay together. Their happiness depends on permanent watchfulness and on never being fully known. Seen this way, intimacy can rest on protective lies that must be kept up indefinitely, rather than on full disclosure.