Set in Haiti, where terror reigns and death comes frequently and swiftly in the night, The Comedians is a story of love and adventure, hope and disillusion. Like one of its predecessors, The Quiet American, it is also a story about the committed and the uncommitted. The Haitian, Doctor Magiot, is committed. His last letter to Brown, the story’s narrator, is a statement and an appeal by the committed, by a man whose nature forces him to share the terrible events of his time. But the others, the comedians, have opted out.