The arrival of a request to write an official biography of a celebrated novelist triggers a collision between carefully curated public reputations and the messy reality of the past. The protagonist, Alroy Kear, seeks to cement his own status by crafting a sanitized account of the late Edward Driffield's life. He faces opposition from the inconvenient truth embodied by Rosie, Driffield's first wife, whose presence threatens to dismantle the respectable image the literary establishment has constructed. The narrative employs a retrospective framework, utilizing the perspective of a narrator who knew the subject intimately, to contrast the artifice of the literary world with the vitality of human experience.

Discussion often centers on the effectiveness of Maugham's biting satire regarding the pretenses of the literary elite. Readers frequently highlight the character of Rosie as the emotional anchor of the story, noting how her authenticity contrasts with the calculated ambition of the other figures. Critics often point to the balance between the cynical humor of the narrative voice and the underlying melancholy regarding the passage of time. The pacing is generally described as deliberate, allowing for a thorough examination of the characters' motivations and the social dynamics of the era. Many readers find the book to be a sharp observation of how history is rewritten to suit the needs of the living.