Plot summary

Three linked stories about writers are presented. The first writer is middle aged Clayton Hammond, who, at a reading of excerpts from his latest book titled "The Words", is picked up by a young grad student named Daniella. In succumbing to her advances, he has to figure out if her motives in pursuing him are about him or something about the subject matter of his book. The second writer is Rory Jansen, the subject of Clay's book. After years of struggling as a writer, Rory garnered acclaim and success as a writer upon the publication of his first book, "The Window Tears". That success allowed Rory to publish subsequent books written before he submitted "The Window Tears", those subsequent books which are deemed not as good as too esoteric and internal. The issue is that Rory's success is based on a lie, which neither his publisher or his adoring wife, Dora, know: he did not write "The Window Tears", it a manuscript he found in a secret compartment in a old briefcase Dora bought for him in a Paris second-hand store. Rory was able to rationalize to himself the reason for taking the work as his own. The third writer is the actual writer of the manuscript that Rory stole. That man was an American soldier stationed in Paris during WWII. It was one of his platoon-mates who got him hooked on literature. But it was a personal tragedy in his life with his French wife, Celia, and their daughter in post-WWII Paris that led to the emotions that allowed him to write the story, which was and is so personal to him because of it.—Huggo