Bradley Pearson, an unsuccessful novelist in his late fifties, has finally left
his dull office job as an Inspector of Taxes. Bradley hopes to retire to the cou
ntry, but predatory friends and relations dash his hopes of a peaceful retiremen
t. He is tormented by his melancholic sister, who has decided to come live with
him; his ex-wife, who has infuriating hopes of redeeming the past; her delinquen
t brother, who wants money and emotional confrontations; and Bradley's friend an
d rival, Arnold Baffin, a younger, deplorably more successful author of commerci
al fiction. The ever-mounting action includes marital cross-purposes, seduction,
suicide, abduction, romantic idylls, murder, and due process of law. Bradley tr
ies to escape from it all but fails, leading to a violent climax and a coda that
casts shifting perspectives on all that has preceded.
