"All of them looking back at him, the other side of the divide, the man who is sunk, stained darkly by the drowning waters, whilst they think themselves safe on-board a shallow raft." In an exotic restaurant, richly ornate in red and gold, an old man tastes his dish and then erupts, tipping over his table and running away. When Peter Simpson hears that this man was his childhood idol, Dr Arthur Finchley, he finds himself drawn into his hero's story, while also re-living the violence and delusion of his own life.