It tells the story of the romance between a French financial speculator and a young Greek widow from a family of bankers.

They decide to settle down and devote themselves to domestic life, but this turns out to be impossible as they are struck with boredom.

[2] Isabel Paterson wrote in The Bookman: "The titular figures of Paul Morand's Lewis and Irene are symbols rather than types.

Paterson continued: "Morand strives for detachment, carefully avoids any hint of a moral or a thesis.

The sensualist Lewis is just a bundle of appetites and aptitudes without passion or real intelligence; he has the sleek sufficiency of a beast of prey.