Ackerly, a British author and editor, recounts his investigation of his father' secret life and his own homosexuality.

Ackerley's father was a successful importer and a bluff, hearty fellow-- qualities that, in his lifetime, were little appreciated by his gay and literary son. On his death, however, he left a letter revealing that his life of respectable prosperity was a fac̜ade. Thus began what for Ackerley was an ongoing quest to comprehend a father who remained always just beyond his reach.