The possibility of self-knowledge with and through others is [Max Frisch's] perennial theme. The elusiveness of shared truth torments his protagonists. Increasingly bewildered by love at cross purposes, they retreat into solitude, take stock of the past, and stand condemned by their own memories…. [The] imprisoned narrator in I'm Not Stiller … denies that he is guilty as charged but confesses to several murders in the name of 'White', an American citizen of German descent….

As the initial mystery is gradually resolved, we are made aware of further perplexities. Court proceedings to set the record straight are clearly a bureaucratic farce; so what are the laws of personal relations and where is justice to be found? What do we owe each other in marriage, kinship and common humanity? How much is each one of us worth, and what can we call our own in an age of technical reproduction...