The Des Esseintes line - a once powerful, proud, and noble family lineage - has arrived at a remarkable end in the person of Jean des Esseintes. Having heretofore pursued a life brimming with robust decadence in Paris, Jean finds himself repulsed by society as a collective whole. As such, he makes a concerted choice to quietly retreat to his countryside home, with the intention of spending his remaining years in pursuit of aesthetic and intellectual contemplation, far away from the displeasing humanity which has become so repugnant to his sensibilities. Surrounded by fine art and classic literature, Des Esseintes endeavors to develop a most curious garden, to prepare his own novel perfumes, and to wend his way down numerous other rabbit-holes of intellectualism. Along the way he purchases a tortoise - which he subsequently gilds with gold, and has encrusted with jewels - to its fatal detriment.Throughout the work, Des Esseintes recalls unique, odd, and debauched moments of his life, as his idiosyncratic diet and odd sleeping habits exact their inevitable retribution upon his health. In the end, he is faced with a brutal choice: to return to Paris to receive the ministrations of professionals or to - inevitably - perish prematurely. In the final moments of the work, he deigns to parallel his return to society with that of an atheist attempting to embrace a religion which he simply cannot abide.