After seven years of marriage, the beautiful Lady Brenda Last grows bored with life at Hetton Abbey, the Gothic mansion that is her husband Tony's pride and joy. She becomes drawn into an affair with the superficial socialite John Beaver and leaves Tony for Belgravia society. 'A Handful of Dust' brilliantly combines tragedy, comedy, and sharp irony, capturing the irresponsible mood of the "mad and sterile generation" between the wars. The disintegration of the Lasts' marriage is a painfully comic retelling of Waugh's own divorce and symbolizes the disintegration of society.