It tells the story of senior literature professor David Kepesh, renowned for his literature-themed radio show.

An erotic liaison is formed between the two; Kepesh becomes obsessively enamored of his lover's breasts, a fetish developed in the previous novels.

Despite his fevered devotion to Consuela, the sexually promiscuous professor maintains a concurrent affair with a previous lover, now divorced.

[citation needed] Consuela never subsequently finds a lover who can show the same level of devotion to her body as Kepesh had.

The Isabel Coixet film Elegy (starring Penélope Cruz and Ben Kingsley), which premiered at the 2008 Berlinale, is based on The Dying Animal.