A young man rejects his father's plans for a military career for him and chooses the life of a silk worm merchant. However, his lengthy if uneventful business trips become increasingly longer as a series of epidemics threaten the survival of the European silk worm. This elegant 19th century-style historical novella evokes the atmosphere of a medieval romance. Written in terse, episodic chapters, the narrative combines beautiful prose with a deliberately non-commital tone. Married but childless, the hero Joncour becomes wealthy. The search for silk worm eggs leads him to a Japanese island. While dealing with a tricky merchant, he meets the man's mistress, and an obsessive passion develops which is sustained through cryptic love notes. Exotic fable and melancholic morality play, Silk seduces and saddens and lingers in the memory.
