With this volume, John Bayley completes his trilogy, looking back on the years in sickness and health which he and Iris spent together, and attempting to come to terms with her absence. As time goes by he finds himself beset with new and alarmingly unfamiliar problems: he suffers equally from the helplessness of being alone and the kindly harassment of well-wishers; discovering too that a widower's life can contain many moments of bizarre comedy. But too much solitude — or too much company — begin to make life seem unbearably complicated. Mella and Margot, ladies who singly and together have shown signs of wanting to take him over, make a determined reappearance. When these events move inexorably towards a crisis, he feels compelled to leave the house in Oxford where he and Iris lived for more than ten years. It is a decision made with reluctance, which promises nonetheless to give the period of bereavement an unexpectedly happy ending.