The book opens in 1880 when Hedvig Volkbein delivers her only child—a son named Felix. Immediately after naming her newborn, Hedvig dies. Her husband, Guido Volkbein (senior), died six months earlier of a fever, so the baby is an orphan. Guido was Jewish, but he told everyone that he was both Christian and a Viennese baron. Obsessed with nobility, Guido did his best to seem like a genuine aristocrat, even collecting objects that belonged to noble families and making up a list of ancestors to put any suspicions about his claim to a barony to rest. Hedvig believed everything Guido told her, although she often questioned why he was so over-the-top in his interactions with anyone he thought might be connected to the nobility, laughing too loudly at their jokes and always singing their praises.
Felix shows up in Paris in 1920 when he’s 30 years old, knowing only what his aunt told him about his parents and determined to become a member of the aristocracy himself. Like his father, Felix is something of a mystery—he has plenty of money but nobody knows how he got it, he seems to belong to every country and nowhere at all, and he carefully chooses clothes that are simultaneously appropriate for evening or daytime wear. He falls in with the circus, attracted to their gaudily decorated rooms and the fact that everyone seems to have a title. Felix befriends a trapeze artist who goes by the title Duchess of Broadback (her real name is Frau Mann) and she brings him to a party in Berlin where he might meet a real count. At the party, Felix meets Dr. Matthew O’Connor, an Irish-American gynecologist from California. Felix begins talking to him, although he’s initially uncomfortable doing so. While Matthew launches into his opinion on the Catholic and Protestant churches, Nora Flood comes up and introduces herself, saying the men find it so easy to talk about sorrow and confusion. Matthew claims he helped deliver Nora and then says people have a hard time holding on to sorrow—it’s finite. The Count comes in and tells everyone to leave, so Matthew, Felix, and the Duchess leave together. Felix goes home, but Matthew and the Duchess go to a café where Matthew expresses his desire to see Felix again one day.
Matthew brings Felix to a café near his home in Paris a few weeks after their first meeting. While they’re talking, a bellhop from a nearby hotel runs over and tells Matthew that there’s an unconscious woman in the hotel and they need help. Felix quickly pays the bill and, at Matthew’s invitation, accompanies him to the hotel. When they get there, they see a beautiful woman unconscious on a couch, surrounded by plants. The woman herself exudes a fungus-like smell and seems to fit in with the plants around her. Matthew, nervous that the police will come and find out he’s unlicensed, quickly douses the woman with water. While the woman starts coming to, Felix watches Matthew look through the makeup on her dresser and steal some money. Felix realizes that this won’t stop him from liking Matthew in future. When the woman wakes up Felix decides she’s attractive and watches her closely. She excuses Felix and Matthew, who learn that her name is Robin Vote.
Back at the café, Matthew realizes that Felix has just had an unusual experience and asks him about marriage. Felix says he wants to have a son who will love the past like he does. Matthew seems to scoff at this, saying nobility and royalty are really just people who have been lied about so much or are so scandalous that people must bow to them. Felix is troubled by this and explains his opinion that paying homage to the past is the only mindset that includes the future. Matthew warns Felix that the last child born to an aristocratic family is insane. Felix writes this off and Matthew raises a glass to Robin.
Felix seeks Robin out in the coming days and finally runs into her on the street. Over the next few days, they spend a lot of time together and Felix asks her to marry him; she accepts. Felix takes her to Vienna and shows her all the old buildings and historical sites, desperately trying to find something that will move her. In their hotel, Felix tells Robin about some of the greatest figures of the past, but when he looks up, she’s asleep. Watching her, Felix realizes he’s not strong enough to turn her into what he wants her to be, and he fails to make her understand or appreciate the destiny he’s chosen for her. When they get back to Paris, Felix begins to wonder why they don’t have a baby yet. He asks Robin and, a short time later, she prepares to have their first baby. During her pregnancy, she starts traveling alone for hours or days at a time, frequently visiting churches (she suddenly takes the Catholic vow). Eventually, Robin delivers their baby, a small, pitiful boy—Guido (junior)—who rarely moves or makes sound. After her recovery, Robin leaves the house more and more. One night, Felix sees Robin hold their son into the air like she wants to throw him somewhere, but she gently lowers him back down. A short time later, Robin tells Felix she never wanted a baby and leaves. When she returns to Paris, she’s with Nora Flood.
Nora has a well-known social salon in America and loves everyone, which makes it easy for other people to take advantage of her. One day, she goes to the circus (the same one she did publicity for in Europe) and sits next to a young woman who is smoking and watching the animals. A lioness in a nearby cage seems to scare the woman, so Nora grabs her hand and they get out of the tent. Outside, the woman introduces herself as Robin Vote and says she doesn’t want to be there anymore. Robin and Nora stay together in America for a few months before going to Europe to travel through different cities. Robin doesn’t share much about herself except that she wants a home, so they go to Paris and set up house together. Although they love each other deeply, Robin starts going out at night more and more often while Nora stays at home in a state of torment, waiting for Robin. One night she wakes up from a dream and thinks she sees Robin’s shadow in the garden. When she goes out to look, she catches Robin in a passionate embrace with another woman.
Jenny Petherbridge has outlived all four of her husbands. She’s small, nervous, and clearly aging. Jenny yearns to be someone that people consider interesting, but she’s afraid of being the first person to do anything. Her solution is to collect (or steal) other people’s possessions, stories, and even loves. When Jenny learns about the love Nora has for Robin, she decides to take over that love and so she pursues Robin. Robin, however, doesn’t seem as interested in Jenny as Jenny is in her. One night, Matthew, Jenny, and Robin all go to Jenny’s house from the opera. There are other people at Jenny’s house, including her young niece, Sylvia, who hits it off with Robin. Jenny gets nervous when other women start paying attention to Robin and calls for carriages for the party to drive around in. After a bit of a struggle, Jenny manages to get Robin and a tall Englishwoman Robin’s been talking to into her carriage. Jenny quickly grows frustrated with the fact that Robin isn’t paying attention to her and starts crying loudly. Robin finally looks over and tells Jenny to shut up. This enrages Jenny, who repeatedly slaps Robin until they both collapse on the floor. When the carriage stops, Robin runs away. A short time later, however, Robin and Nora split up and Jenny takes Robin to America.
Nora goes to Matthew’s rooms one night for comfort and to ask him about the night. She catches him wearing a wig, makeup, and a nightdress, but doesn’t question it (to herself, she thinks that it’s okay). Matthew tries to explain that life at night is different from life during the day, but to understand the night one must think of it during the day as well. When a person sleeps at night, the lose some control—they can’t control their dreams or what they do in them—and for this reason a lover is tormented by what their beloved may be doing in dreams. Nora asks Matthew about Jenny and he tries to explain how she collects other people’s objects, experiences, and loves. Matthew knows Nora is curious about one night in particular: the night Robin met Jenny. Matthew tells Nora about introducing Robin and Jenny at the opera and the fateful carriage ride they took together later that night. Matthew says that while he watched Jenny slap and scratch Robin in the carriage, he thought to himself that Nora will leave Robin one day, but somehow fate will bring them back together; maybe a dog will find both of their bones after they’re buried.
After traveling through Europe with his son, Guido—who is still sickly and, according to some, mentally ill—Felix decides to take one last trip to Paris before settling in Vienna. He meets with Matthew to talk to him about Robin and their son. Felix doesn’t understand why Robin married him but admits that he also made a mistake by misunderstanding her attitude as acquiescence. Matthew explains that while most people are afraid of history and destiny, Robin was not, which set her apart. Felix worries about his son’s sanity and Matthew tells him to take care of Guido’s mind because they don’t know what’s in it—his sanity is indecipherable, perhaps hidden behind his emotional sensitivity. Felix says he always wanted to understand life and time, but now he realizes that doing so requires a certain amount of insanity, perhaps like Guido’s. He theorizes that Robin might be on a quest to understand it herself. A short time later, Felix, Guido, and Frau Mann appear in Vienna. Both Frau Mann and Felix drink excessively and always bring Guido to the bar with them.
Matthew goes to visit Nora and is dismayed to find her writing to Robin. Matthew asks her to rest and reminds her of the pain Robin has caused other people. Nora insists that she can’t stop herself—she must write. Matthew and Nora have a long conversation about Robin, gender and sexuality, death, dreams, and what will happen to them all. Nora tells Matthew about ending her relationship with Robin after going to visit Jenny and learning that Robin had told Jenny that there was nothing between Nora and herself. After Robin left, however, Nora tried to find some hint of her everywhere. Ultimately, Nora wishes she and Robin had died together so there’d be nothing left but their love. Matthew leaves and goes to a bar where he unloads his own misery on an ex-priest. Matthew curses the people who look to him for comfort because he has his own pain to contend with. He says there will be nothing left but anger and tears.
Shortly after Jenny and Robin get to America, their relationship falls apart. Jenny can’t understand Robin and it drives her mad. Robin wanders ever closer to Nora’s home, eventually setting herself up in the chapel on Nora’s property. One night, Nora and her dog find Robin there, dressed in boys’ clothes. When she sees them, Robin drops to her knees and pretends to be a dog, terrorizing Nora’s dog until they both collapse in exhaustion.
