A rich and well-known writer, returning from one of many holidays to Vienna, finds a long letter from an unknown woman. It tells the story of this writer, while reading a letter written by the woman he does not remember, gets glimpses into her life story. She was never married because her heart belonged always to the writer. She has never confessed her love. In the 1918 flu pandemic, she, ill then, wrote this letter to be posted after her death.

Stefan Zweig (November 28, 1881—February 22, 1942) was an Austrian novelist, playwright, journalist and biographer. At the height of his literary career, in the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most famous writers in the world.