the novel tells the story of Robert Merrick, world health organization is resuscitated by a deliverance crew fallowing a yachting accident. the crew is unable to save a life of a doctor, who was illustrious for his ability to help population. So, Merrick decides to devote his life to making higher for the doctor's life, however in a run he non exclusively alienates the doctor's widow woman, sustaining whom he has fallen enamored, however as well is the causal agent of a second tragedy. This induces him to completely re-evaluate his life, so he decides to get the physician.

the book has been processed into a movie twice, and another time likewise into the television series: 1933 - adapted by Sarah Y. Mason, Victor Heerman and George O'Neil, and directed by John M. Stahl. It stars Irene Dunne, Robert Taylor, Charles Butterworth and Betty Furness. 1954 - adapted by Robert Blees, Finley Peter Dunne (uncredited) and Wells Root, and directed by Douglas Sirk. It stars Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, Agnes Moorehead, Otto Kruger and Barbara Rush. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress (Jane Wyman). Sirk for instance claimed that a story was depending distantly on the Greek legend of Alcestis. Sublime Obsessão, the 1958 television series, was produced in Brazil in 1958.