Coleman Silk is a 71-year-old retired classics professor who taught at Athena College for 20 years. He retired amid a scandal after being accused of using a racist epithet to refer to two African American students. Coleman’s wife, Iris, dies shortly after his retirement, and Coleman blames his colleagues at Athena College for her death. He obsesses about the scandal and asks his neighbor, Nathan Zuckerman, to write a book about all of it. He also begins an affair with a campus janitor, Faunia, who everyone believes is illiterate.

Coleman’s character thrives on the control of his reputation and the necessity of self-invention. The disgrace of the controversy enrages him because it unfairly tarnishes his reputation. Nathan argues that the intensity of Coleman’s outrage at being accused of being racist or taking advantage of Faunia have a deeper meaning. Coleman is outraged because he continues to get away with something much more deceptive: passing as a white man. Coleman feels that what he did to his mother when he decided to turn his back on his family and his race by passing as white is the worst thing he has ever done and can ever do. Coleman attempts to restore joy and vitality to his life through his affair with Faunia.