The premise of the novel is loosely based on the research on the Homeric question done by Milman Parry and Albert Lord in the 1930s, where they helped to develop the theory of Oral-Formulaic Composition.

[1] The story opens with news reaching the Albanian Ministry of the Interior that two American-Irish scholars, Max Ross and Bill Norton, have applied for visas to their country.

Upon arriving, Ross and Norton are immediately trailed by Dull Baxhaja, a diligent and loyal spy at the governor's behest.

During dinner, the foreigners tell the governor that they are Homeric scholars, but show reservation in explaining the details of their quest.

He conducts interviews, searches the foreigners' luggage, makes photocopies of their journal entries, and creates a hideout in the attic above their hotel room to surveil them.

Situated at a crossroads near the base of the mountains in the North, the inn is a common resting place for traveling highlanders, making it an ideal location to intercept wandering bards.

He also introduces them to the poor ethnic relations between the Albanians and the Serbs, explaining that the two peoples have fought for thousands of years, and both believe themselves to be the original inhabitants of the land.

The two scholars are excited to discover slight alterations in the wording between performances, supporting their hypothesis of the origins of epic poetry.

The two continue their work, and while they struggle for many weeks, eventually seem to feel that they've successfully made connections between the Albanian epics and the ancient Greek stories.

The governor reads that Dull observed Dushan returning to the inn, pacing and nervous, though not establishing contact with the scholars.

Around then, Dull sends in a surprise letter of resignation because he fell asleep on the job, missing an entire interaction between his targets and an unknown woman.

Although the English reprinting after 2005 of The File on H. bears the emblem as winner of The Man Booker International Prize 2005, the judging system prior to 2016 was designed such that authors earned the award on the merit of the full body of their work, not an individual novel.

[11] Erica Weitzman, in a more neutral approach, noted in The File on H.'s journal article in The Modern Language Review that some have criticized Kadare's choice to adapt Parry and Lord's work in modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina and relocate the setting to Albania as "blatant political tendentiousness, if not outright lies and propaganda.