When American journalist Jethro Jones arrives in the seaside resort of Greenyard he finds in Dr Dysert a man of charming manners and great professional skill, dedicated to the care of his elderly patients - a man, moreover, who has risen above a series of private misfortunes. But what is it that the doctor, so modest a man, sees when he gazes at himself for so long in the mirror? And why is Jethro himself so interested in the doctor's little foibles - and in his matrimonial affairs?