As an art critic he had often written that the purpose of art is to soothe the pain of life. But his theory faces a real-life test with a death, that of his father, the celebrated artist Stass. Overwhelmed by feelings of anger, guilt and loss, Michael finds himself descending into a kind of madness in which the boundaries between fact and fiction break down. In a terrifying alternative reality, where even time seems unstable, he encounters the horrific figure of Pound, a murderous Nazi-sympathiser, determined to get his hands on Stass's diary. There too Michael finds the protean but beautiful femme fatale Miss Waites, and a Chandleresque companion, Geroud. But as art and life collide in this moving, often angry, but also funny book, the question remains whether art can ever really act as a cure for pain.