- On a cold May afternoon, Bradley Pearson is working up the willpower to head to the train station and get on a train out of London. Before he can make it out of his apartment, though, a surprising visitor knocks at his door.
- Francis Marloe, Bradley's estranged brother-in-law, has arrived to let Bradley know that his ex-wife, Christian Evandale, is back in town.
- The news flusters Bradley, but before he has time to kick Francis to the curb, the telephone rings.
- At the other end of the telephone is Arnold Baffin, who asks Bradley to come over right away.
- According to the man himself, Arnold has just killed his wife.
- Bradley pauses his narrative so that he can tell his readers the background story of his friendship with Arnold Baffin.
- Bradley and Francis arrive at the Baffin home together, where they find Arnold in a state. His wife, Rachel, has locked herself in the bedroom after receiving a nasty blow to the head, and Arnold is terrified that she might be dead.
- Bradley heads up to the bedroom alone, and after throwing himself at the door and hollering Rachel's name, he hears her voice from within.
- After shouting downstairs to Arnold and Francis that Rachel is all right, Bradley goes into the bedroom alone. There, he finds Rachel in another terrible state, looking bruised, bloody, and disheveled.
- Bradley lets Francis come into the room to take a look at Rachel to assess the damage. He himself heads back downstairs with Arnold.
- There, Bradley hears Arnold's side of the story and is informed that Rachel gave herself a nasty wound on the head by running into a poker that Arnold had picked up to defend himself from Rachel's clawing, scratching fury during a fight.
- When Francis comes back downstairs, he tells Arnold and Bradley that Rachel is going to be fine. He also tells them that Rachel has asked to see Bradley, and so Bradley heads back upstairs.
- Back in the bedroom, Bradley sits and listens to Rachel's side of the story. Although she doesn't accuse Arnold of hitting her with the fireplace poker deliberately, she insists that she's never going to forgive her husband for this debacle.
- After listening to Rachel's furious perspective on her marriage, Bradley heads back downstairs to rejoin Arnold and Francis.
- There, Bradley succeeds in ushering Francis out the door—and, he hopes, out of his life once more—and he sits down to talk with Arnold for a little while longer. As he does, he hears Arnold's perspective on his marriage with Rachel and finds that he has no idea what to think about the true state of their relationship.
- Characteristically, Bradley and Arnold soon find themselves arguing about the nature of art and creativity, but they do their best to defuse the disagreement before it turns sour.
- During this conversation, Bradley tells Arnold that he's planning to go to Italy to do some solitary writing. (The cabin he's rented for the summer is actually in England, though. Bradley is telling a fib.)
- Soon, Bradley takes his leave of the Baffin home and starts to make his way back to his own apartment.
- As Bradley walks back to his apartment, he speculates about the goings-on back at the Baffin home.
- Soon, he's walking through downtown London, and as he heads to the underground station, he sees something strange—a young man strewing flower petals by the side of the road.
- As Bradley watches, he slowly realizes that the young man is actually a young woman, and, not only that, but she is Julian Baffin—the college-aged daughter of Arnold and Rachel Baffin.
- Bradley decides to walk by Julian sneakily, and as he does, he realizes that she isn't strewing flower petals at all—she's tossing torn-up pieces of paper into oncoming traffic as it passes along the road.
- Julian recognizes Bradley and says hello to him. They start to chat, and Julian soon tells Bradley that she wants him to do her a favor—specifically, she wants him to mentor her as she attempts to become a writer.
- Although Bradley is hesitant, Julian soon gets him to promise that he'll send her a list of literary classics that she should read.
- After saying goodnight to Julian and heading back toward the underground station, Bradley turns back to look at her once more and leaves with the image of the young girl looking into a shop window, admiring an expensive pair of fashionable boots.
- The next morning, Bradley sits down to write a series of letters. He begins by writing to Arnold Baffin, hoping to head off any resentment that might begin to fester in his friend after the gruesome events of the night before.
- Next, Bradley writes a letter to Julian, insisting that he would make a poor writing tutor but giving her some recommendations of literary classics to read.
- After that, Bradley writes to Francis Marloe, telling him to stay out of his life.
- Finally, Bradley writes a letter to his ex-wife, Christian Evandale, to inform her that he doesn't want anything to do with her and intends to have no contact with her whatsoever (apart from this letter, natch).
- After writing all of his letters, Bradley stops to reconsider them. He isn't quite sure that he wants to send the letter to Christian, after all—it's possible that she might interpret it as a coy bid for attention rather than a serious warning to stay away—and he decides to give it more thought.
- Once again, Bradley gets ready to leave his apartment and head to the train station, where he plans to get on a train that'll take him out of London and to the northern seaside cottage that he rented for the summer.
- Before he manages to get away, though, Bradley receives yet another surprising and unwelcome visit from someone who arrives unexpectedly at his door.
- Bradley pauses his narrative so that he can tell us about his sister, Priscilla Saxe, who will soon be introduced to us as the person standing outside of Bradley's apartment, frantically ringing the doorbell.
- When Bradley opens the door and finds Priscilla standing outside, he soon learns from her loud sobs that she's left her husband, Roger Saxe, and needs a place to stay.
- Although Bradley tries to dissuade Priscilla from coming in, Priscilla makes herself at home and gets into Bradley's bed, intending to drown her sorrows in sleep.
- When Bradley comes and sits by the bed, Priscilla tells him all about how horrible her marriage has been lately.
- Bradley does his best not to listen and insists that Priscilla is overreacting. After telling her that she really can't stay—and that he really does need to go and catch his train—Bradley decides to give her a few minutes alone while he finishes packing his bags.
- When Bradley returns to the bedroom about ten minutes later, Priscilla tells him that she's just swallowed all of her sleeping pills.
- Bradley panics and starts racing around the apartment. As he heads toward the telephone to call for an ambulance, the telephone starts to ring. Arnold and Rachel Baffin are on the other end, wanting to know if they can come 'round to visit.
- Bradley blurts out the situation with his sister, then hangs up on Arnold and Rachel and tries to call for an ambulance. As he looks for a telephone book that will give him the phone number of the nearest hospital (there's no 911), the doorbell rings.
- When Bradley opens the door and finds Francis Marloe standing outside, he ushers him in right away and tells him what Priscilla has done.
- Francis tells Bradley to telephone the hospital and find the prescription bottle that had held Priscilla's pills, and as Bradley races around, the doorbell rings again.
- Bradley opens the door and finds the whole Baffin family outside. Frantically, he lets them in.
- In the chaos that ensues, Priscilla throws up, Arnold telephones the hospital, Priscilla's prescription bottle is found, Bradley gives Julian one of his knick-knacks, and an ambulance arrives.
- As Bradley soon learns, something else has happened during one of the brief moments that he went into the bedroom to check on Priscilla—his ex-wife, Christian, has shown up, and Arnold has whisked her off to a local pub.
- As paramedics come into the apartment with a stretcher for Priscilla, Bradley runs out into the street to look for Arnold and Christian.
- Bradley pauses from his narrative yet again—this time to speak directly to the "dear friend" (P. Loxias) to whom his narrative is addressed.
- Throughout the pages that follow, Bradley muses on the nature of truth and art, as well as on the difficulty of representing people faithfully and accurately when writing about them in a story like this one.
- The day after Priscilla swallows her sleeping pills and is taken to the hospital in an ambulance, she's back in Bradley's home, lying in his bed.
- Bradley is still fretting over the thought of Arnold having gone off somewhere with Christian, but he's trying to give Priscilla some attention, too.
- As Priscilla talks about various hypothetical plans for the future, Bradley tries to reorient her grief-stricken notions with more practical and reasonable ideas. He doesn't have much success.
- Telephone calls from various acquaintances—Hartbourne, Francis Marloe—interrupt the conversation, but whenever Bradley returns to the bedroom, Priscilla is ready to pick up where she left off.
- More than anything, Priscilla's fixated on the things she left behind at her husband's home—her jewels, especially—and she wants Bradley to go get them for her.
- As Priscilla pleads with Bradley to go and get her jewels, Arnold Baffin arrives at the apartment. He and Bradley begin to bicker about Arnold's recent excursion with Christian, and Arnold tells Bradley that he needs to bite the bullet and agree to see his ex-wife.
- As they're talking, the telephone rings again—this time, it's Christian herself on the other end.
- Bradley hangs up on Christian, but she calls him back right away. When Arnold tries to pick up the phone, Bradley bangs it back down again, and, when Christian calls a third time, Bradley picks up the phone and holds it away from his ear, just close enough to make out the sound of Christian's voice inviting him to come over to talk.
- Bradley hangs up again and hears Priscilla's voice coming from the bedroom. He goes in to see her and finds her getting dressed and made up. She tells him that she wants to go out to thank Arnold for all of his help yesterday.
- Bradley tells Priscilla that he's going to ask Arnold to stay with her for an hour or two, and then he makes his request to Arnold.
- Then, Bradley takes off to go and visit Christian.
- Bradley heads to Notting Hill, where Christian is now living again in the apartment they once shared as husband and wife.
- Christian greets him at the door, and he sees that she looks fantastic. She invites him in and pours some scotch.
- Christian talks excitedly and does her best to melt Bradley's frosty exterior, but she doesn't have much luck. Bradley is insistent about the fact that he really, really doesn't want to be friends with her.
- After covering a wide range of topics in an attempt to get all caught up, Christian suddenly notices her brother, Francis Marloe, looking in the window. She yells at him to go away and takes Bradley upstairs to the second floor.
- From upstairs, Christian throws some of Francis's things out of the window, explaining to Bradley that Francis has been trying to squat at her place and mooch off her ever since she returned.
- As Bradley looks out the window, he sees Arnold Baffin coming along. Christian goes downstairs and lets Arnold in right away—the two of them have obviously gotten chummy.
- When Bradley joins the group, he asks Arnold why he left Priscilla, and Arnold replies that she attacked him (as in, she hit on him aggressively). Luckily for him, Rachel appeared at Bradley's apartment right about then, and so Arnold left Priscilla with her.
- Arnold and Christian laugh and flirt together as Bradley leaves the apartment and begins to make his way back home.