The story follows Archibald Abercrombie, a meticulous dentist whose orderly life is briefly upended after a chance meeting with the exuberant writer G. K. Chesterton. While initially intoxicated by Chesterton's brilliant paradoxes and disregard for convention, Abercrombie gradually notices the physical decay and practical neglect hidden beneath the author's verbal abundance. He eventually realises that while intellectual spectacle can inspire, it often evades the necessary responsibility of repair and care. Ultimately, the text champions the dignity of competence over the allure of performance, concluding that civilisation is sustained by those who patiently maintain the world rather than those who merely explain it.