A lovelorn university student with a poetical disposition, Angel fails at being a man. In fact, he fails at being a human, unable to perform even the most basic of tasks without some mishap. Thousands of miles away is his beloved damsel, an American he met in London during the Spring-an elegant, traditional girl from a wealthy family. Deeply impoverished, he is forced to take a rude job to execute his design of visiting her during the Christmas break. Their reunion is to be a momentous occasion, a romantic collision of singular import, a fulfilment of cosmic proportions. Alas, early in the term he learns via social media that she has fallen under the nefarious, corrupting influences of poisonous new friends at her university, and as the weeks pass, her gradual transformation, physical and mental, becomes ever more distressing. He must reach her before it is too late! But the pennies seem maddeningly elusive, and along the way appear all manner of reverses and impediments. Not least because his is a brutal world of brawling thugs, rabid protesters, loan sharks, exploitative employers, hysterical students, pranking handymen, brick-wall administrators, impatient women, and much worse. Moreover, behind this tableau, subterranean forces are moving that will dramatically alter his life, but Angel is so focused on his quest that he is missing important clues. If he would only turn to look . . .