The narrative follows a man consumed by an anxious, long-standing liaison with a woman, living each day between hope for meetings and the dread of last-minute cancellations. Domestic routines and servants' comings and goings frame his mounting physical and emotional distress as letters and telegrams regulate contact. The relationship swings between intense longing, possessive demands, and brief moments of imagined confrontation, while separations and miscommunications deepen uncertainty. Themes include obsessive desire, jealousy, the cruelty of waiting, and the ways social conventions and written messages shape intimate life.