Speculation

What if the most brilliant man you had ever known died and left you choice: ten million dollars or a sealed envelope?

For Andrew Wrangles, a middle-aged professor of philosophy, the question is not hypothetical. His friend and hero Sothum, who was a genius at both philosophical and financial speculation, has died suddenly and left him with this very choice.

Andrew's wife Cheryl thinks he's crazy not to take the money immediately. And maybe she's right, but Andrew can't shake the feeling that Sothum would not have offered him such a choice idly, and cannot keep from speculating about what the envelope might hold that could be worth more than complete financial freedom.

Andrew's questioning leads him inexorably into secret and unsettling areas of Sothum's history. What he discovers there will cause him to question not just the nature of their long friendship, but what the human mind is capable of--and ultimately force him to decide which he values more: the flights of intellect he has always envied his friend, or the ordinary life he has created with his wife.