The novel tells of his work experience in the local factory. He applies for a job there. As with Olivetti, there seems to be a certain willingness to help those who were injured in the war. However, the application seems to take a certain amount of time. Eventually he goes to work in the department of a man called Grosset. Grosset is one of the few characters he finds sympathetic. The story follows Saluggia’s journey through the system, as he becomes increasingly alienated and struggles to hold on to his individuality. That he is ill seems to be clear but he is not too willing to accept it. The company, however, through its somewhat Kafkaesque doctors and personnel department, is continually trying to get him into the system to take treatment and cures, visiting doctors, having X-rays and warning him of the dire consequences of not doing so. He does not believe the doctors but finds out that they all seem to be in conspiracy together. Whether this is just his paranoia or is really the case is left open to doubt. Indeed, his paranoia extends to believing that his mother is part of the conspiracy. Whatever the truth of the matter, there is no doubt is that he is up against a system that is far stronger than he and can and does outmanoeuvre him. In other words the system will always win against the individual, a message that has since been reinforced in other novels about industry.