The story of Burroughs life, from his Ivy League background, through his early years of lowlifes in New York, his years of exile in Tangier, Paris and London, following his accidental killing of his wife, his return to New York, and old age in Kansas is interwoven with an examination of his writing, and of his collaboration with others. Caveney succeeds in explaining the enigma of a man who behaves like a gentleman, and quoted the Buddha in Rimbaud as his literary mentors, while enjoying a lifelong fascination with drugs – guns Dash knives – pornography, and criminals of every kind of low life.