On the morning of his 30th birthday, a young bank official named Joseph K is arrested, although he has done nothing wrong and is not even told what he's been charged with. Although he is freed, Joseph is haunted by the knowledge that he has been found guilty by some unknown authorities, and his quest to prove his innocence will entangle him in a vast legal system with no interest in justice. Gripping yet often humorous, Franz Kafka's unforgettable 1925 novel anticipated how totalitarian states persecute the individual.