Harold Carver becomes increasingly troubled by his inner turmoil, and then one day he is confronted with a situation which sets him on a course of action that spirals out of control and leads to his eventual downfall. The Pool is a tale of conflicting forces battling for, and finally overpowering, the protagonist's soul, and is drawn from the author's own experience with obsessive-compulsive disorder. However, it is a work of pure fiction and should not be regarded otherwise.