Daniel Page, a sexually naive young man, is disturbed by the shifting standards of morality he encounters at university in the swinging 60s. He becomes infatuated with Angela Hartland, a sensuous, liberated medical student; but she, alarmed by the depth of his feeling, feels compelled to cut their relationship short. Shattered by this rejection, Daniel falls into his teenage obsession with the mysterious Clytie, and her tragic love affair with Frederick Lugard in India almost one hundred years earlier. Daniel s nemesis is Mark Robson-Browne, a bully from his schooldays, by whom Angela, not knowing of Mark and Daniel s shared pasts, is temporarily (and not unwillingly) lured into an affair. This is a catalyst for Daniel s darkening obsession and he becomes haunted by two Clyties: Lugard s Clytie, and the mythical water nymph of Ovid s Metamorphoses. Angela s medical studies bring Daniel back into her life. Both have to make adjustments as their relationship develops. Angela s impulsive sexuality helps to dissolve the tortured contradiction between Daniel s intense nature and his restrictive moral standards; but her liberality carries a risk "