Set among New York's bohemian circles, the novel follows George Finch, a young legacy-funded painter whose infatuation with a distant young woman triggers a chain of comic misunderstandings. His valet Mullett, efficiency expert J. Hamilton Beamish, and a cast of eccentric acquaintances contribute schemes, social observations and mistaken identities; satirical sketches of self-help, artistic pretension and urban manners punctuate episodic incidents on roofs, in restaurants and in apartments. The tone blends farce and gentle satire as private ambitions, romantic hesitations and social posturing collide, producing amusing complications that are resolved by pragmatic, often ironic, accommodations among the characters.