At the same time, she becomes interested in reclusive anthropologist Alaric Lydgate, who has recently returned from Africa and lives next-door to Deirdre and her family.

[2] A sub-plot involves the activities of Deirdre's fellow-students Mark and Digby, and their attempts to curry favour with influential academics as they seek grants to facilitate the next phase of their careers.

The novel was published in Spain as Un poco menos que ángeles, Italy as Un po' meno che angeli and in France as Moins que les anges Less Than Angels is set in a period of social change which is subtly represented within the novel's plot and setting.

The novel is largely concerned with the activities of a group of anthropologists, and is to some extent based on the author's own experiences working at the International African Institute in London.

"[9] Several characters from Pym's earlier novel Excellent Women reappear, including Mildred Lathbury, Rocky Napier, Everard Bone, and Esther Clovis.

Less Than Angels was the first Pym novel to be considered for a film adaptation, with Twentieth Century Fox showing some interest in the 1950s.