The reserved personnel manager, Mr. Newman, lives with his mother and shares the prejudices of his time and his neighbors. He considers neither a Hispanic woman being abused outside his window nor the persecution of the Jewish shopkeeper where he buys his newspaper any of his business. Everything changes, however, when Newman starts wearing glasses and others mistake him for a Jew. Arthur Miller's gripping novel displays the same moral precision and emotional intensity as his plays. As antisemitism escalates in 1945 New York, the prejudices Newman initially shared turn menacingly against him.