The book is divided into two parts. Part One is narrated from the main character, Tony Webber about what he remembers his last year in school and his first 2 years at University. He talks about his relationship with a high school friend named Adrian Finn and later a girlfriend, Veronica Ford, at University. Then about the way he remembers a tragedy, 40 years later when he is in his 60s.
Part Two begins when he gets a letter from Veronica Ford's mother leaving him something in her will. This letter causes him to re-establish contact with Veronica and re-examine how he remembers the past, and what might have actually happened.
At some point in the story he re-reads a letter he sent to Adrian, his last contact with his friend before the tragedy. He has forgotten what he wrote, and the bitterness he felt at the time. This is a clever novel, as the memory sequences go back and forth between the present and the past. It also makes readers ponder: Is there is a way we see ourselves, a narrative we write about ourselves, that is different from how others see us? And is what we think at the time what actually happened?
As I approach 40, I do find myself looking back at events 10 and 20 years past. There are certain, strange details that you remember with clarity, and through the prism of time understand them better than you did then.
