Summary

The story opens when the main character, a thirty-eight year old man, has only begun to suspect he has a serious illness. The two most important elements in the story -the man and the disease from which he is dying-are never named. As the disease progresses, we learn very little about the main character, but we do learn a great deal about his inner circle of friends. It is through their conversations that the personalities and actions unfold, with the narration giving the sense of something overheard, rather than directly shared; we follow the developments while they are passed from one friend to another in hurried exchanges and whispered confidences.

During this first scene, while several friends discuss the man's symptoms, they acknowledge he must be very frightened, since he has given up smoking. Despite having lived with a variety of...