Jemnou psychologickou kresbou vystihl autor hrdiny svého prostinkého příběhu, odehrávajícího se v Benátkách ve starém romantickém paláci, obývaném pouze dvěma starými ženami. Do tohoto prostředí přichází literární kritik, který usilovně pátrá a snaží se zmocnit rukopisných památek po slavném zesnulém spisovateli.
For Rembrandt, as for Shakespeare, all the world was indeed a stage, and he knew in exhaustive detail the tactics of its performance: the strutting and mincing, the wardrobe and face-paint, the full repertoire and gesture and gimace, the flutter of hands and the roll of the eyes, the belly-laugh and the half-stifled sob. He knew what it looked like to seduce, to intimidate, to wheedle and to console; to strike a pose or preach a sermon, to shake a fist or uncover a breast; and how to sin and how to atone. No artist had ever been so fascinated by the fashioning of personae, beginning with his own. No painter ever looked with such unsparing intelligence or such bottomless compassion at our entrances and our exits and the whole rowdy show in between.