Harald Hanson becomes president of a small Ohio college while still young and inexperienced. Stebbins College has built its curriculum around environmental issues: Harald is recruited on the strength of his popular book about the environment, Greening Up. Once in office, he views the job as a larger version of the Poly Sci department he formerly headed. But Harald misunderstands the views and expectations of the faculty, particularly those of ambitious department chairs and senior professors who are determined to bring him down. In the midst of this upheaval his wife, Clarissa, leaves to pursue a theatrical career in New York. Then his brother informs him that their father is ill and hospitalized in northern Michigan. Also, Harald fears that a careless indiscretion with his secretary, Sarah, may become public. His troubles seem to be out of control and headed for disaster until an unexpected invitation arrives. A scheduled speaker withdraws from an important international meeting in Paris, and Harald is asked to substitute. He accepts the invitation and asks Sarah to go with him. When Sarah shows up in London with her boyfriend, the diving coach from the college, Harald knows he has been duped and he flees to Paris. At the meeting he encounters Chicory Higgins, an attractive and competent Native American woman, and he stumbles into a new fantasy. And so it goes, with twists and turns to the very last page. As the cover image suggests, the story is a total immersion experience.