Think critics are tough? Try dealing with the dead ones.

Rumors are spreading that the late great theatre critic Edgar Elbert Elf still haunts his former estate, Cajun Hall, which has lately fallen to the care of his friend Robert Butler.

Butler invites us to hear the closely-guarded truth. We relive the last days of Elf, whose charisma and wit, tempered by a kind heart, long dominated the Hall. Terminal illness made the theatrical critic take his last bow early. A psychological challenge as much as a physical one, this may have pushed him to change unexpectedly.

The result is a tragicomic tale with a touch of the surreal, revealing the peculiar extremes to which loyalty and duty may lead us.