A woman who has retreated from speaking takes a class in Ancient Greek taught by a man who is slowly losing his sight. That's a bald statement of the plot, but Han movingly explores language and communication through her characters that have physical and emotional blockages to communication. I found her writing on the physicality of communication to be quite evocative. I don't claim to understand everything that happened in the novel, but it did make me think about what we go through when we decide to reach out to other human beings.