Corman worked at the prestigious Athena University in New England before his death, but in the spring of 1998, he called some students who skipped class "ghosts" in class, which happens to have "niggers" in American English. So he was accused of being a racist. Under the principle of "political correctness," Koeman became a victim. Life fell apart, and almost overnight, he was left with nothing.
However, it didn't take long for his extramarital affair to be exposed again—the woman who had a relationship with him was Fonia, a school cleaner who was much younger than him. This made him even more distressed, and he had to seek out a friend, writer Nathan. Zuckerman's help. Zuckerman has been investigating his background and wants to use his story as the basis for the novel.
After a series of catastrophic events, Koeman finally knew that it was Zuckerman who was behind everything. But Zuckerman was not satisfied with these tragedies brewed by himself, and he had to give Koeman the most fatal blow: revealing the life experience he had been trying to hide.
It turned out that Koeman was an African-American who falsely claimed to be Jewish because of his lighter skin. To prove that he could stand in the white world, he gave up his racial beliefs, family, and even his personality in the end.
Fiona was from a wealthy background, and her parents divorced when she was a child. At the age of 14, she was raped by her stepfather and ran away from home after being humiliated. She later married and divorced Rice, a mentally disturbed Vietnam veteran. During the period, a fire took away her two lovely children, but after the divorce, Les continued to pester her. Until she met Koman, the two lonely people harbored secrets and used passion to fill their inner loneliness and heal their wounds.
In the end, Zukoman abets the jealous Les to create a car accident that squeezes Koman and Fiona's car into a glacier on a snowy morning. Corman and Fiona's love shatters, Rice's revenge succeeds, and Zuckerman's novel based on the story is once again a bestseller.
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