Her two older brothers died several years earlier in a tragic accident, and she is constantly reminded of their presence by the pictures of the boys' childhood hanging on the walls of the Cole family home.

Eddie is unwittingly drawn into a plot orchestrated by Ted to drive his unhappy wife, Marion, to infidelity.

Ted picks Eddie specifically to tempt Marion because he bears a striking resemblance to his son Thomas, "the confident one".

Soon, having come up with the idea for her fourth novel, Ruth is researching in Amsterdam's red light district and finds herself hiding in a closet to witness a prostitute (she has somewhat befriended) with a client.

The detective who helps solve the murder becomes preoccupied with finding the "witness" long after Ruth returns to the United States.

In this book, as in The World According to Garp (1978) and Last Night in Twisted River (2009), John Irving uses writers as protagonists and provides examples of their writing.