Young Ephraim Goldman is the author of a perennial bestseller. A celebrated academic lion, he hobnobs with the movers and shakers of his era, such as Einstein, Berenson and Bertrand Russell.

Ephraim's son Bernard is a young writer, desperate to make his own reputation in the literary world.

After a shrewd publisher hires Bernie to write his father's biography, he stumbles across a startling photograph. As the mystery of his father slowly unfolds, Bernard has to come to terms with both the present and the future.

But in the end, can he repair his relationship and begin to understand his father... or will long-kept secrets destroy their family?