Werfel's "comedy of one tragedy" is set in the period of the German occupation of France. It is a dramatic polemic and confrontation of two different human mentalities and approaches to the fight against inhumanity and violence. Jacobowski is old man running away from country to country from political persecution. Colonel Scierbinski lost his fight with the fascists and his only hope is to escape to Britain but he had to get his love Marianne with him. A long painful journey awaits them,. Sometimes they travel together and sometimes alone. but the outcome is not at all certain.
