The fourth volume opens with the narrator's chance observation of a surprising encounter in the courtyard of the Guermantes home, which leads Proust into a long reflection on homosexuality and secrecy in society. The story continues in salons and then at Balbec, where the narrator renews his acquaintance with Albertine and begins to wonder about her life and loyalties. The book deals with jealousy, concealment and the limits of knowing another person, and with the fading of grief and the persistence of memory. It is among the most searching volumes of the sequence.