The plot takes the form of an anonymous narrator exchanging letters with a deceased lover, recounting their affair.

[4][5] The narrator remembers the pleasure they shared as well as the sorrows which can no longer be resolved due to his friend's death.

[6] Often the book touches on the theme of time and memories and how the narrator attempts to hold on or let go of these aspects of love and relationships.

[6] Stacy D'Erasmo described the setting of the novel as "1970s gay male nightlife at New York’s old rotting piers, a twisted, rusting, metallic ruin of anonymous sex and unexpectedly sublime tableaus.

"[7] Writing in The New York Times, John Yohalem described the novel as "a set of delicious, affected prose poems by a writer of great talent and high art.