Chris, a typical 1950's "angry young man", disaffected, bored, sexually frustrated, decides to write a novel. A chance meeting with Claire, an introverted student, and their consequent attendance at a classical music concert provide the impetus and material for his novel. The reader is then presented with the opportunity to read Chris's novel as he writes it.

The protagonist of Chris's novel is Ed Polak, psychotic, violent, manipulative. His destructive nature not only dominates the lives of his wife, Eva and their son, Tony, but also his creator, Chris, hence the title of Mitchell's novel. Ed is, paradoxically, the life-force of both novels and the bringer of death and tragedy in Chris's. Horrifyingly, Ed's main victim is his son, Tony. Tony is described as "moronic" or "backwards". My reading is that he has some form of autism, since the boy is an exceptionally gifted pianist. On learning of his son's gift and his subsequent obsessive manipulation of it, Ed is able to realise his crazed ambition to create his unique brand of art, DESTRUCTO-SYMPHONIA. Eva, the mother, can do little to protect her son, since remonstrations only serve to feed Ed's mania rather than halt it. 'Polak and Son' becomes a bizarre music hall act: a small boy in tuxedo playing Beethoven beautifully, his father stacking chairs and junk on the stage next to the piano until at the moment of purity the stack is pushed over creating chaos, pain, destruction, a distraught child, an elated father, an incensed audience. There is a climax to Chris's novel but I won't give the ending away. Suffice to say, Chris has great difficulty getting the novel published and we accompany him on the rocky road of rejection and disillusionment. Yvonne Mitchell uses her knowledge and experience as an actress and writer to capture both worlds brilliantly - Ed's seedy, provincial fringe theatre 'success' and Chris's struggle with failure towards recognition. Both men are driven by the need for external acknowledgement as if without it they don't exist (which of course is true as they are simply characters in a book; if the book isn't read then they don't exist).

Perhaps the point that Mitchell is making is that when we search for affirmation from others, when the performance or the art becomes more important than life itself, we sacrifice the truth and validity of our own existence and with it the possibilities for happiness and fulfillment. Ed and Chris, on the other hand, would be extremely relieved to have "God is Inexperienced" back in print.