Phineas G. Nanson, a disillusioned post-graduate student, decides to leave his abstract studies and pursue a seemingly concrete task: to write a biography of a great biographer. But Phineas quickly discovers that facts can be unreliable and a “whole life” hard to define. As he tracks his subject from Africa to the Arctic, he comes to rely on two women–one of whom may be the guide he needs out of his research and back into his own life.