Elderly and infirm novelist Richard Mardick dramatically dictates his memoirs to his young protégé Denys Aspin, so that his life story may be preserved for posterity. Faced with a mysterious and undefined illness, the young Richard was sent to recuperate and work on his uncle’s farm, causing him to give up all hope of an intellectual career. Coddled and stifled by family life, the adolescent Richard finds solace in a childhood love affair. The mysterious secret that Richard seeks to exorcise from his past is hinted at and finally uncovered as his narrative ends in tragedy.

In The Betrayal, the sequel to The Brickfield, Richard Mardick, now an ageing novelist, is forced by circumstances to look back on the days of his boyhood and confesses to Denys Aspin, his young secretary and biographer-to-be, how Lucy's death has forever marred his life and distorted his inner peace. The consequences of this rash disclosure range from threats and blackmail to the entirely unpredictable reactions of Richard's friends.