The action of the novel largely begins after the attempted (perhaps successful) suicide of the protagonist. This occurs after he suffers a beating at the hands of a cuckolded husband. After his supposed death, and assuming everything in the world around him to be a manifestation of his 'leftover' imagination, his "eye" observes a group of Russian émigrés as he tries to ascertain their opinions of the character Smurov, around whom much uncertainty and suspicion exists.