This is a novel that describes its own creation. The plot of the novel, in very banal terms, is how Marcel Proust realizes his vocation in life, which is to be a writer. He realizes this after a series of false starts: first, he becomes a social climber, who thinks the goal of life is to be witty and artistic and in the best salons with the noblest

It is at the Parisian party that concludes the novel that Marcel finally realizes past feelings and experiences, far from being lost, remain eternally present in the unconscious. Marcel further realizes that these “memories” can be released through a work of art, and thus he discovers his vocation: to write In Search of Lost Time.