A prototypical Yatesian dreamer, John C. Wilder is a bored but successful salesman of advertising space, living in New York City who seeks refuge from the disappointments of his life in alcohol and adultery.

With the encouragement of a mistress, Pamela Hendricks, Wilder renews himself through their common love of movies and the prospect of making a film about his institutionalization.

The novel ends with Wilder wandering the streets of Los Angeles, declaring himself to be Jesus Christ (mirroring a delusional incident in Yates's own life), and being recommitted to an institution.

[1] Fourteen years after the success of Revolutionary Road, critics were expecting a novel as astonishing as his debut to confirm his status as a great writer.

While Yates's short-story collection Eleven Kinds of Loneliness was celebrated, his second novel A Special Providence was panned.