Cain's novels are not densely populated. He usually focuses attention on the protagonist/narrator, and creates four or five supporting players to act out the dramatic incident. Frank is a drifter; he has a restless need for mobility which places him at cross-purposes with his lover, Cora, who is basically sedentary. Having had the door to movie stardom shut in her face, she settles for a lesser goal — bourgeois respectability, which she hopes to attain by renovating the inn and, with Frank's help, making it a profitable business. After they are cleared of the murder, Cora attempts this but Frank's characteristic aimlessness makes him resist putting down roots. The two lovers learn that their respective natures repel. As Cain shows at the end of the novel, any effort to merge two opposite philosophies of life will end in destruction. Cora dies in a car accident — ironically...