Set among New York’s upper society, the novel follows Jack Gatewood, a cultured yet disillusioned bachelor troubled by emotional emptiness. A conversation with his friend Kerns at their club leads him to reflect on his longing for an ideal woman and to consider the services of Keen & Co., a firm specializing in tracing lost persons. Though initially skeptical, Gatewood accepts the strange proposal and is drawn into encounters with eccentric figures and unexpected situations. Blending humor with quiet melancholy, the opening frames a journey in which the search for love becomes a path toward self-awareness.
