Comstock lives without luxuries in a bedsit in London, which he affords by working in a small bookshop owned by a Scot, McKechnie. He works intermittently at a "magnum opus" he plans to call 'London Pleasures', describing a day in London; meanwhile, his only published work, a slim volume of poetry entitled "Mice", collects dust on the remainder shelf. He is simultaneously content with his meagre existence and also disdainful of it. He lives without financial ambition and the need for a 'good job,' but his living conditions are uncomfortable and his job is boring.