The picture shows a man with his back to the observer. He is leaning slightly forward over a scene representing an unsupported table on which stand several houses of cards that may fall down at any moment. One has already collapsed. The picture is a metaphor for the tragic fate and existence of the human being, his uncertain plight in the modern world, as well as a utopian view on socialist society. He gazes at the houses of cards as though trying to read his fate, his future. The artist himself may be recognised in the man’s depiction, hiding his face from the observer in a state of speechlessness given the forlorn and tragic image of modernity before him.