When philandering cognitive scientist Ralph Messenger meets recently bereaved novelist Helen Reed sparks fly on the campus at the University of Gloucester. Ralph knows he wants Helen; Helen finds him attractive but rejects his advances on principle. Each thinks the other is wrong - about this, and much else. In chronicling their passionate and argumentative relationship, David Lodge has written a dazzling comic exploration of love and deception, the enigmas of consciousness and the intricacies of the human heart.