 The novel follows Geoffrey Braithwaite, a widowed, retired English doctor, visiting France.While visiting sites related to Flaubert, Geoffrey discovers two museums claiming to display the stuffed parrot which sat atop Flaubert's writing desk for a brief period while he wrote "Un Coeur Simple".While trying to identify which is authentic, Braithwaite learns that Flaubert's parrot could be any one of fifty (""Une cinquantaine de perroquets!