Banville surprises once again with well-measured excess. Seamus Heaney. A long summer day in a manor house in Ireland: Adam Godley is dying, a good enough reason for his son Adam Jr. and his daughter Petra to set aside their resentments and visit their father and his significantly younger mother Ursula one last time. What the Godleys do not know is that their family reunion is being observed by the gods, who do not hesitate to intervene, sometimes in a corrective and malicious manner. Adam Godley, a renowned mathematician who has made a name for himself with the concept of infinity, seems to have reached the end of his life. As he lies silently yet alert in his bed, his children arrive to see him one last time. There is his son Adam, who has never been able to measure up to him and still suffers from his father's rejection, as well as the unhappy daughter.