Brief Lives British born novelist Ian Aubrey, descendant of the eccentric 17th century diarist John Aubrey, is having difficulty writing a biography of his ancestor and of confronting his own life. Ian was among English children sent to the United States during WWII. He was raised by a strict but caring New England cousin until he left for New York City to attend Columbia University and later join the theater and literary worlds of New York. His friends include a prestigious publisher and his wife; a British diplomat; a playwright who has only been produced Off Broadway and his patient wife. A descendant of Russian Counts whose parents still use the title and her husband who is a respected Computer Scientist. At the book's opening Ian's marriage is in ruin partly because his stage designer wife holds him responsible for their daughter's suicide at sea. Among their friends it is more generally believed that the daughter had had a small boat accident in a storm. The relations within this up scale society are marked by deception, adultery, and betrayal. No character seems aware of what is happening around them. Tension develops when Ian sees his wife's bra in the playwrights summer home. They intensify when the playwright invites the publisher's wife to sail with him on a photo tour to the Galapagos . There is gossip, accusation, and threat in the atmosphere. After the going off party, the sloop, enveloped in black smoke, disappears from view. The boat has sinks in smoke. Suspicion of foul play sinks into the consciousness of watching friends. At the memorial service at Saint Bartholomew Episcopal Church in New York, there are buzzings of 'murder' and 'bomb'. Later that summer, beautiful daughter of Russian aristocrats visits Ian on the Cape. She is worried about her husband who has been drinking heavily and has taken up the study of mushrooms. She realizes that this could be a dangerous pastime. Ian and she go for a sail on his Catboat, are surprised by a storm, anchor on a lee side island, and to Ian's surprise, make uncomfortable love. In her absence, Charles, feeling alone and misplaced and sensing tension in his marriage, attempts suicide by eating a poisonous mushroom. Ian is left to think, 'this is the way the world ends, this is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.'
