 "Extinction" takes the form of the autobiographical testimony of Franz-Josef Murau, the intellectual black sheep of a powerful Austrian land-owning family.Murau lives in Rome in self-exile, obsessed and angry with his identity as an Austrian, and resolves never to return to the family estate of Wolfsegg.He is surrounded by a group of artistic and intellectual friends, and intends to continue living what he calls the "Italianate way".