Philip Grove is a handsome, attractive man who has had several divorces. He is interested in a variety of projects - philanthropy, media productions - but most of all in preserving a certain kind of life. After his divorce, he is paying a lot of alimony, and still cannot find the time to be a father to his daughter Carol. He isolates his friends by spreading rumours about them amongst their social circle, but nobody confronts him about it because it would simply lead to more trouble. Philip eventually gets remarried, to a showgirl named Sandy who protested at first because she felt he was too old for her. One of his friends reluctantly agreed to persuade Sandy, who eventually does marry him for his money and influence. On their honeymoon, however, Philip bursts a blood vessel in his eye, and it never quite heals. He spends the next few years abusing his health and making movies that Sandy can star in. His daughter Carol dies after taking drugs with a rusty needle, and he is ill-equipped to handle this loss. Then he receives a fatal diagnosis - leukaemia, with approximately six months to five years left. Almost instantly, Philip begins to use his impending death as a source of discomfort to the people around him and as a source of irony for himself. He gets his way with his employees, agents, and writers by reminding them that he is dying. At first they acquiesce to his demands, but very quickly the emotional strain on them gets to be too much. Philip uses his terminal disease as an excuse to be unpleasant, calling it the desire to be 'completely honest,' and very soon people start avoiding him, callously wondering why it is taking him so long to die. His final movie production is a whirlwind, because he assumed it had to be finished in six months. After that time passes, he is still alive, and finds himself utterly indifferent to his business. At the hospital, he is visited by one of his friends; at his deathbed, he finds a moment of clarity and apologises for his wrongs, finally abandoning his posturing in order to be the real Philip. When the friend leaves, he is lying there with his eyes closed, looking as though he is asleep.