An aging man is watching Shakespeare on television in the setting of a modest suburban house. Do not be deceived by the simplicity of such an image. For the man is Julian Ramsay, biographer of the literary Lampitt dynasty, and the famous black actress playing Margaret of Anjou was once, perhaps, the love of his life. Julian's mind wanders to a night that began with making love to the young and gorgeous Dodie and ended in the small hours of the morning outside the flat where James Petworth Lampitt lived and died. This is the story of that one evening, in the course of which Julian journeys from London's high society to its low life, meets many characters from his past, revisits memories, and, at last, unravels the mysteries of the two violent deaths that dominate the Lampitt Chronicles. From the joys of acting to the pangs of unrequited love, from a reunion of aging Fascists in London to a wintry romantic interlude in Venice, the plot of A. N. Wilson's tour de force leads the reader with consummate skill towards a wholly unexpected conclusion.