Part two of the novel, much more readable, sees Jeff back in New York, turning down his father’s job offer, describing his changing relationship with a teacher, Emma, who has a strange son adopted from the Ukraine, Stak. They visit an art gallery displaying a single huge natural rock and Jeff quotes Heidegger: “Man alone exists. Rocks are, but they do not exist. Trees are, but they do not exist. Horses are, but they do not exist.”"The proposition 'the human being exists' means: the human being is that being whose Being is distinguished by an open standing that stands in the unconcealedness of Being, proceeding from Being, in Being." MH, P 284.