The story of a painter who specialises as a copyist - 'an honest craftsman not a cheat, not a forger' - told by him His bills and his artistic conscience bother him in roughly equal amounts, and he is bullied and badgered by his women Clio his child-bride, wilful, deceptive and dependent Helen his first wife, his beloved betrayer Maisie his mother, redoubtable, straightforward and not altogether what she seems