Adrian Ludlow, a novelist with a distinguished but slightly faded reputation, is living in semi-retirement with his wife, Eleanor, in an isolated cottage beneath the flight path of London's Gatwick airport. Their old friend from college days, Sam Sharp, who has since become a successful screenplay writer, drops by unexpectedly on the way to Los Angeles. Sam is fuming over a scathing profile of himself by Fanny Tarrant, one of the new breed of pugnacious interviewers, in that day's newspaper. Together, Sam and Adrian plan to take revenge on the journalist, though Adrian is risking what he values most: his privacy. What follows is unexpected and upsetting for all of them, including Fanny.

David Lodge's delicious novella examines with characteristic wit and insight the tensions between private life and public interest in contemporary culture.