In this evocative, hanting novel a lost world is recovered, a world both privileged and doomed, the world of an aristocratic family as it confronts, head on, the twentieth century. The narrator, an orphaned only son of a younger son, is our guide and through him we witness the dissolution of "my old and beloved family" as it comes face to face with modern life.

Through the elegant, witty voice of his narrator, Jean d'Ormesson takes readers into the shimmering, ephemeral seemingly timeless world of the aristocrat. We are swept up in the lives of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, great and great-great grandchildren. We have visited the family's townhouses and estates, been privy to their scandals, been honored guests at their tea parties and soires. And lovingly, tenderly, nostalgically, d'Ormesson has shown us not only the weaknesses that brought this world to its end, but also the strengths and virtues that kept it viable so long.