The Hotel Fakir is a novella in four parts. The image of a Cunard ocean liner unites the parts, offering a metaphor of escape and adventure that epitomizes our search for meaning and romance. Center stage is the Hotel Fakir, an ante-bellum Charleston mansion, now a tango salon that attracts those seeking connection through tango. Among them is Dolores, a tango instructor at the Hotel Fakir; Amancio, a White House aide; Ignatio Quiroga, an exiled Argentine general; and Max, a blocked writer who is seduced by the hypnotic cadences of Tango. Their interactions and obsessions color the story as remote history and Sea Island culture impinge on life in the Hotel Fakir; events in Argentina have tragic repercussions in Charleston, and we come to understand that life is ever subservient to our embrace of love.