This is an exceedingly clever novel. The inside flap of the dust cover gives three definitions of the word “plot,” and this book is about all three: a sequence of events in a narrative, as in a novel, for example. an immoral or illegal plan a designated section of land for a gravesite Jacob Finch Bonner (aka Jake) is once-promising novelist whose career didn’t pan out. After a well-received first novel, his second book foundered.