This novel by a professional philosopher explores issues and mysteries related to consciousness, personal identity, gender, race, and culture. Its main characters are two sets of conjoined twins, one set male and white - imprisoned in Canada; the other set female and black - isolated in a remote southern African village. Each set of twins is based on documented cases of two heads fused into one body.
The novel's through line is a love story, beginning with each pair of twins searching for their anomalous counterparts and ending with their eventual marriage on the Internet. They never physically meet, due to their isolated circumstances, so the evolution and fulfillment of their entire relationship occurs in cyber-space.
Embedded in the plot is continuous conflict. Each personality in each pair is at odds with the other and this produces even greater conflict in the union of both pairs of twins. The conclusion is an optimistic, though tragic, resolution of their conflicts and the various problems they uncover in philosophy of mind from within their respective cultural frameworks.