The Ridiculous Man
The story is really an interior monologue in which the none of the characters are named as the title fellow is by far the most significant. He is educated and intelligent, possessed of self-awareness and curiosity, but in a moment of weakness reveals a cruelty that will forever alter his future. The bulk of the story is comprised of the details of his dream, but it is the kind of vivid dream that is more like a prophetic or even apocalyptic vision.
The Little Girl
The act of cruelty is directed toward a little girl. She is about eight years old and dressed in little but tatters soaked by the rain. She is crying for mother and clearly in a heightened state of intense anxiety. Seeing despair, he senses her condition results from a mother in the throes of dying. But he refuses to assist her, first urging her to find a police officer and, when she refuses to leave his side, stamping his foot until he runs away in terror. This act of inhumanity leads him to consider suicide before he drifts off into his dream voyage.
Dream Companion
Much like that famous Doctor who travels through space and time, the ridiculous man is soon enough joined by a companion described as a creature who is not human, but exists and lives and has knowledge not yet available to the dreaming man. This creature introduces him to a paradise existing in a parallel universe where paradise was never lost and the Fall never occurred. It is an Eden-like place where contentment is based upon a simple principle of treating everyone as you would treat yourself. It has managed to maintain its perfection without corruption…until it is infected by the mere presence of a human.
