"The Death of O'Ryan Ross " is a harrowing tale of a young man's descent into madness and death. Torn apart by surging emotions, tortured by his own insecurities, shamed by his total obsession with a mythic young woman he just met, O'Ryan Ross alienates friends and family until he is at last all alone. Based on a word-for-word exploration of Tolstoy's novella, "Death of Ivan Ilych," the Ross Family Saga continues in this prequel to the "The Missionary and the Brute."