Basil is in love with Emily before they meet in person. He accepts the doubtful task of tutoring Hedgeny, the university's star athlete, when he learns Emily will be co-tutor. The three are young, naive, and full of life. They click and are soon known on campus as The Mighty Three. Hedgeny is finally meeting academic grade requirements, much to the relief of school administrators. Just as important, his behavior improves. Though still active in local bars and campus parties, he has ceased to run riot. Basil and Emily enjoy his notoriety, bask in the penumbra of his star-status glow. One afternoon, hopelessly in love with Emily, Basil decides to quit The Mighty Three. Emily loves them both, he and Hedgeny, has told him so herself. Competing with the superstar, the Adonis, is out of the question. Considering himself the lesser man, Basil steps away. He leaves Emily on a blanket next to the river where they have been watching Hedgeny do the heretofore impossible, swim across it and back. The next day Emily is found in her dorm room in a coma and no one knows why. Frustrated in their attempts to reach her, having exhausted tried and true procedures, doctors consult with her parents. There is a controversial procedure, a stimulus under experimentation, the Cranial Loop. They make the decision to go forward and give it a try. A top psyche student, Basil applies for and is granted a position as assistant to the procedures. A student on an academic scholarship, he is allowed to move into a room in the psyche building. He is paid a small stipend to act as caretaker of the building and, most important to him, he is close to Emily. Basil is frustrated in all attempts to speak to his old friend, Hedgeny, about the circumstances leading to Emily's condition. He is welcomed as a friend in the barrooms and turned rudely away whenever he broaches the subject. Haunting the hallways and subterranean levels of the psyche building, Basil discovers secrets, learns of cover-ups perpetrated by the University in the past. He witnesses Emily suffering through the Cranial Loop procedures, learns the mechanizations of the process. As a matter of course, he has access to and knowledge of psychological and pain management drugs, morphine and Triazolam specifically. Basil decides to take the investigation into the cause of Emily's condition into his own hands. The first point of order is to question Hedgeny, find out if he is covering for someone and if the University is involved in some way. On Christmas eve Hedgeny attains national acclaim as he single-handedly rips the University's football team from the jaws of defeat. A Mardi Gras atmosphere prevails on the quad at the campus as riotous students, drunk and very nearly disorderly, await the return of their hero, the man, Hedgeny. Basil waits as well. He intends to lure Hedgeny away from his fans and pressure him to come to the psyche building for a meeting with Emily."