Surviving Desire" is about a brilliant but absent-minded professor of literature, Jude, and his obsession with a passage from The Brothers Karamazov. The professor suspects himself of being an atheist facing a crisis of conscience. He feels attracted to the student Sophie, which doesn't make things any easier. Sophie, a novice writer, is fascinated by the feelings of her teacher and eventually falls under his spell. In "Surviving Desire" Hartley also tells a story of love and deception, with characters who are intelligent, but that doesn't bring them any closer to real happiness.