Bertie is persuaded to brave the home of his fearsome Aunt Agatha and her husband Lord Worplesdon, knowing that his former fiancée, the beautiful and formidably intellectual Lady Florence Craye will also be in attendance.

The title derives from an English translation of Psalms 30:5: Wodehouse was working on the novel in Le Touquet, France before he was interned by the occupying German authorities.

He completed the book in Germany after his wife, Ethel, brought the unfinished manuscript with her when she joined her husband in Berlin.

Through a misunderstanding, she happily believes that Bertie is trying to improve his mind by reading Spinoza and her own book Spindrift, causing him to fear that she will renew their engagement.

Meanwhile, Jeeves has been consulted by Worplesdon on how to arrange a clandestine meeting with an American businessman, Chichester Clam, without alerting the press.

Jeeves suggested that Bertie rent a cottage (called Wee Nooke) in Steeple Bumpleigh where the two businessmen can meet in secret.

As one of his daily acts of kindness, Edwin attempts to clean the chimney only to burn down the cottage after using gunpowder and then paraffin.

He then runs into Jeeves who says that since Wee Nooke has been burned down, Worplesdon and Clam plan to meet in the potting shed that night.

When Worplesdon insists that the imprisoned Clam is not a burglar, Boko (unaware of the situation) heavily berates him, straining their relationship even more.

Jeeves steals Stilton's police uniform for Bertie so he can attend the ball and persuade Worplesdon to approve Nobby marrying Boko.

Worplesdon warms to Boko when he hears that he has also kicked Edwin and will shortly be starting a job in Hollywood, six thousand miles away.

Stilton resigns from the police force in disgust at Worplesdon's underhanded behaviour which causes Florence to reconcile with him to Bertie's delight.

One of the stylistic devices used by Wodehouse for comic effect is the transferred epithet, using an adjective to modify a noun rather than the verb of the sentence, as in chapter 5: "I balanced a thoughtful lump of sugar on the teaspoon".

An example of the latter case occurs in chapter 15, when Bertie Wooster compares someone who is suddenly surprised to someone who has been "struck in the small of the back by the Cornish Express".

For example, he renders the phrase in colloquial terms in chapter 12 of Joy in the Morning, when explaining to Nobby that he could not stand up to Florence: "And if you think I've got the force of character to come back with a nolle prosequi—""A what?

"Jeeves introduces rem acu tetigisti in chapter 4 of Joy in the Morning, translating it as "You have touched the matter with a needle", which Bertie rephrases as "Put my finger on the nub".

He compares Wodehouse's original text with a translation of Joy in the Morning into French by Denyse and Benoît de Fanscolombe, published by Amiot-Dumont under the title Jeeves, au secours!.

Thus Wodehouse's phrase "to give the little snurge six of the best with a bludgeon" becomes, in French, "flanquer au maudit galopin une volée de martinet".

Wodehouse discussed ideas used for the character of Stilton Cheesewright in a letter he wrote to his friend William "Bill" Townend.

In the letter, dated 6 April 1940, Wodehouse asked Townend if it were possible for a young peer to become a country policeman with the idea that he could later get into Scotland Yard.

Wodehouse stated that the character "has got to be a policeman, because Bertie pinches his uniform in order to go to a fancy dress dance, at which it is vital for him to be present as he has no other costume".

[14] Joy in the Morning was written with elements of England from the early twentieth century, as with the other Jeeves stories, despite being published in 1946.

[17] The story was adapted into the Jeeves and Wooster episode "Lady Florence Craye Arrives in New York" which first aired on 23 May 1993.