Novelist Eric Weiss, critically celebrated but unsuccessful, “arrives” when his new, autobiographical novel becomes a best-seller. An outsider all his life, he is suddenly on the inside of everything: town cars, television studios, the Sunday book review. But as his career takes off, his personal life stutters.

His father lies ill in Maimonides Hospital, Jewish Brooklyn’s version of the river Styx, wondering when Eric will produce his first grandchild. His former friends and neighbours in Brooklyn celebrate his success while simultaneously being suspicious about his attitude toward them in life and in his novel. And his success, rather than oiling the waters of his marriage, troubles them for him and his writer-wife.