Pale Fire, Canto Three Summary

Shade is asked to give a lecture about death to an organization with the acronym I.P.H., the Institute of Preparation for the Hereafter, which he refers to as If. His daughter is just a small child, and the family goes north to a town called Yewshade to work with the organization. I.P.H. wonders about the problems of a newly arrived soul in the afterlife and tries to prepare for the possibilities.

What if a man dies, and both his first and second wife are in the afterlife? Who does he go to? How do they get along? Experts and people from many faiths come together to discuss the unknowable: What happens after death?

Over time, I.P.H. becomes more Buddhist. A spiritual medium performs a fraudulent séance. Freudians join the group...