The stability of Tony Last's life at Hetton Abbey collapses when his wife, Brenda, initiates an affair with a socialite, triggering a sequence of events that exposes the moral vacuum of the British upper class. Tony Last, a man devoted to the preservation of his ancestral home, finds his world dismantled by the capricious whims of his wife and the shallow social circles of London. The narrative follows his descent from a position of comfortable domesticity into a surreal and isolated fate, highlighting the disconnect between traditional values and the emerging modern cynicism. Waugh utilizes a detached, ironic tone to document the disintegration of both a marriage and the social order of the interwar period.

Discussion often centers on the abrupt shift in tone that occurs as the narrative progresses from social comedy to a bleak, almost existential conclusion. Readers frequently highlight the author's ability to maintain a cold, clinical distance while depicting the destruction of the protagonist's life. Critics often point to the novel as a definitive critique of the moral bankruptcy prevalent in the British upper classes during the 1930s. The effectiveness of the satire is frequently debated, with many noting that the humor serves to heighten the underlying sense of dread and futility. The work remains a subject of study for its structural precision and its unflinching look at the collapse of traditional social structures.