Having lived in the mountains for many years, the hermit Zarathustra decides it is time to return to people, bringing them the message that God is dead and a new type of man must arise. Even as he gathers disciples, Zarathustra realizes that his message is being distorted, and he will face mystical temptations to abandon his work and to despair of mankind. Written in a time of personal turmoil the 1880s, Friedrich Nietzsche's allegorical novel accessibly introduces such concepts as the "Übermensch" and "the will to power," but it stands on its own as a powerfully written work of literary fantasy.