At a dinner at the home of his friend, retired Oxford professor Sir Peter Wheeler, the narrator, Deza, is introduced to Mr. Tupra. Months later he is working for Tupra, giving his interpretations and analysis of the behavior and motivations of a wide range of people. A flashback to the morning after the dinner reveals that Wheeler worked for
MI6 during
World War II, and that Tupra did similar work. In their conversation, Wheeler tells Deza that the latter shows evidence of being one of the greatest and most perceptive personality analysts of his kind. ==References==