Self-satisfied, delighting in the many fascinating quirks of his own personality. Hermann Hermann is perhaps not to be taken too seriously. But then a chance meeting with Felix, a man he believes to be his double, reveals a frightening 'split in Hermann's nature. Convinced that he has found his doppelgänger, Hermann uses this discovery to weave a money- making plan that leads to disguise, betrayal and eventually murder. Filled with impudent, startling humour, and dominated by the egotistical and scornful figure of a killer who thinks himself an artist, Despair takes us into a deranged world of doubles and illusions, where nothing is quite as it seems.