Le Guin is an extraordinary writer and what she does here is a story about morality that can only be told through narrative. It's not a story with a moral, but it is a story that tries to grab a hold of moral questions that are to slippery to ask and narrates them instead. It's good and painful and sad and is just the beginning of the questions human beings need to ask themselves. But they are not questions that can be asked, only stories that can be told.