[2] As in many of Nabokov's early works, the characters are largely Russian émigrés relocated to Europe, specifically Berlin.

This occurs after he suffers a beating at the hands of a cuckolded husband (the protagonist has been having an affair with a woman called Matilda with whom he has also, apparently, been rather bored).

[3] After his supposed death, and assuming everything in the world around him to be a manifestation of his 'leftover' imagination, his "eye" observes a group of Russian émigrés as he tries to ascertain their opinions of the character Smurov, around whom much uncertainty and suspicion exists.

As the protagonist carefully collects these observations, he attempts to build a stable perspective on Smurov — whom we only belatedly discover is the narrator himself.

In a 1967 interview with Alfred Appel Jr, Nabokov retrospectively suggested that the work might have represented a turning-point in his career in this respect.