The story unfolds in New York, on the city's bustling streets, in cafés, and around hotels. The narrator tries to understand what sort of person a “dandy” is and asks various people about it—a journalist, a waiter, a girl collecting donations on the street, and a critic. Their answers reveal the diversity of urban curiosity, self-assurance, and social personas. The inquiry unexpectedly turns the narrator himself into the subject of his study.
