A memoir of Burr`s life, told with typical Vidal-style gossipy detail. Charles Schermerhorn Schuyler, an ambitious journalist, is writing an anonymous pamphlet to prove that Martin Van Buren (Jackson`s vice-president) is the bastard son of Aaron Burr. Schuyler wants not to harm Burr, but to ruin Van Buren. Burr, thinking that Schuyler is writing a biography, gives him a memoir. The novel combines Schuyler`s point of view with Burr`s own memoir. Schuyler discovers the truth about Van Buren, but also about himself.