An unnamed first-person narrator admits that his reputation as a literary critic is less than lofty. Despite this general disregard toward his work, he has reached a point at which he is convinced he possesses a talent which belies this lack of regard. He identifies the singular moment in time that his self-evaluation began to rise against the external tide. That moment was when his friend and fellow critic George Corvick asked him to write a review of the latest novel by esteemed author Hugh Vereker.
Corvick has turned to the narrator in an agitated state prompted by the fact that he had promised the literary review a review of Vereker’s novel. The only problem is that he has not even had time to read it. This state of affairs is the result of his obsessive romantic pursuit of Gwendolen Erme, a young woman deemed more interesting than beautiful who had already published a first novel before she had turned twenty. And so arrives the unexpected opportunity for the narrator which will wind up impacting all their lives in significant ways they could never have imagined.
Having written his review, the narrator prepares with anticipation to meet Vereker in person. He is convinced that his analysis of the novel has managed to hit upon the precise meaning at the center of it and is sure that the author will be appropriately impressed to meet such a beautiful mind. This sense of satisfaction at a job very well done is only intensified by the unexpected sight of the highly regarded Lady Jane reading from the narrator’s review of the novel directly to Vereker, informing him that the writer “has actually got AT you, at what I always feel.” Vereker snatches the review from Lady Jane’s hands and announces his intention to peruse in private. When he reappears at the party a little later, he finally voices his opinion. The narrator is almost giddy with anticipation until he hears the succinct encapsulation of Vereker’s view, declaring it “the usual twaddle.”
A half-hour later, Vereker approaches the narrator and apologizes for unwittingly insulting him, claiming he had no idea the author of the review was actually in attendance. This gesture insinuates Vereker back into the narrator’s good graces and soon enough the two are engage in deep conversation during which the author complains that all critics are oblivious to the secret mystery which unlocks the meaning of all his writing. When the narrator proposes that this mystery is comparable a complex figure hidden within the pattern of a Persian carpet, Vereker excitedly jumps on the imagery, agreeing that is the perfect description of “the thing for the critic to find” that will unlock the meaning in his writing. This is the moment that ignites the central events of the narrative as the narrator is inspired to become a man on a mission. He will be the critic who succeeds in explaining the meaning at the center of the celebrated author’s entire body of work.
However, his approach to penetrating the center of this mystery does not actually extend to poring over every word within that extensive body of work. George and Gwendolen are enlisted to help with the mission, and it is they who commit to the job of actually reading Vereker’s novels in order to locate the secret mystery of meaning. This commitment eventually takes up an entire year of their lives but is considered time well spent as gradually become as obsessive on the subject as the narrator. After having worked his way through Vereker only to remain as far away from solving the mystery as ever, George accepts an invitation to take a job with a newspaper in India in a decision to leave both the obsession and Gwendolen in the past. He will even go to the length of asserting that he has broken off his engagement with Gwendolen though she fervent denies it ever happened. One day she receives a telegram George has sent from India that contains shocking news. He claims that he has actually figured out Vereker’s secret and sets out for Italy to get personal confirmation of his theory from Vereker himself before actually revealing the details of his theory to Gwendolen. Upon receiving confirmation from Vereker that that he has, indeed, correctly identified the metaphor figure hidden in the carpet, George proceeds to announce that he still plans to keep it to himself. He uses the secret information as bait to entice Gwendolyn into marriage by promising to reveal the secret to her only after they are wedded. Meanwhile, the narrator finds himself being completely left out in the cold darkness of ignorance despite him being the one responsible for learning there was a mystery to be solved in the first place.
George develops a grand plan to reveal the secret key to unlocking the meaning at the heart of Vereker’s writing in a comprehensive overview of the author’s work he intends to publish after his marriage to Gwendolyn. Before he has the chance to commit a single word to paper, however, he is killed in a car crash during the newly married couple’s honeymoon. Sensing that his only opportunity to ever find out what George discovered about Vereker is to assume he at least had the chance tell to bring his wife into his confidence, the narrator sets upon winning the widow’s affections like a predatory animal. He admits that he is even willing to go the whole way and marry her if that is the condition upon which learning the secret rests. This plan does not go well as Gwendolen rebuffs his every advance. This obstruction to learning the secret which consumes him leaves him with just one remaining avenue: going straight to the horse’s mouth. This plan also goes badly for the narrator, but it turns out even worse for Vereker. The author has died and apparently taken his great secret to the grave with him.
Gwendolyn does not stay a widow for long as the narrator later discovers she has remarried. The groom is Drayton Deane and besides their wife, he and George share one something else in common: they are both literary critics. After a few years pass, Gwendolyn becomes pregnant only to die during childbirth. What is tragedy for one person is often opportunity for another and the narrator can see only one thing about the tragic death of Gwendolen. It has created an absence which removes an obstruction to insinuating himself with Drayton. The narrator is convinced George had told Gwendolyn the secret to unlocking the meaning of Vereker’s books and that Gwendolyn naturally passed along this information to her second husband. When he finally gets the chance to directly confront Drayton on the issue, however, he is stunned to find that he genuinely seems to have no clue about anything the narrator is talking about. Not only does he not possess the secret information the narrator is so obsessed with discovering, he is completely ignorant of the fact that a secret to be solved even existed. The novel draws to a close on the image of the two men seated together as the narrator begins to relate the entire series of incidents which the reader has just finished, starting with the revelation by Vereker of the existence of a secret key to unlocking the meaning of his work.
