Professor Felix Hart and his wife Jessica are an expatriate English couple carrying baggage from their different pasts into their Toronto mid-life crises. For her, the early death of an idealized first husband has left a deep need for security, something Felix is unable to supply. For him, a two year medical trauma after a near fatal car accident seems to keep him struggling to take seriously anything in his personal or university life. Felix, though amused and flattered by a visit to his wife's psychiatrist at her insistence, is himself drawn to misfits. Lisa (a hospital nurse), who eased his hospital pains, but later almost drags him into her own mired marital affairs. Alison (an English Department colleague he tries to help), enduring a brutal husband's sadism. A second Alison (a young student needing his comfort), having a dangerous affair with a married fellow professor. Louis Fein (a popular visiting scholar), whose mock theory is that every human relationship is a flirtation. Eleanor (working at CBC Television), a 29 year old virgin who perhaps handles Felix's sex counseling wisely. In the end, his tennis playing partner and divorce lawyer friend Max, together with his needful wife Jessica, bring Felix to wonder whether real life should be more than just escapism into modern versions of jocosa materia, the old comic tales which are the subject of his serious academic research. More fiction by F.W. Watt Heads or Tails 23 Stories After the Funeral Loving Daughters The Road to Sutton The Youth Drug The Lannigan Set-Up Where is Julius