The narrative centers on the unsettling realization that a woman casts a shadow in the wrong direction, signaling a fracture in the reality of post-war New York. Elsa Hazard, a woman haunted by her past, navigates a life in Manhattan while the narrative oscillates between her current existence and her previous life as an intelligence officer in 1944 England. She is opposed by the persistent, intrusive memories of wartime secrets and the psychological dissonance of her current environment. The story utilizes a non-linear structure to bridge the gap between the trauma of the past and the mundane, yet surreal, present.

Readers and critics frequently note the author's ability to blend mundane domesticity with an underlying sense of dread and surrealism. Discussion often centers on the technical precision of the prose and the way the narrative forces the reader to question the stability of the characters' perceptions. Many highlight the effectiveness of the wartime flashbacks in grounding the psychological instability of the present-day scenes. The work is often praised for its refusal to provide easy answers, leaving the reader to interpret the significance of the shifting timelines and the central mystery of the shadow.