Highly literate and reluctantly beautiful, Tuli is a young woman with a compulsion to have sexual relations with men she finds pathetic or repulsive. Just as she determines to end her unhealthy behavior, she meets Sam, a young man whose bent frame and nervous disorder make him resemble just what she is trying to quit. The story is narrated by Tuli's homely pet fish, Fish, who loves Tuli and grapples with the hopelessness of his own desire as he waits for Tuli to find happiness. This postmodern novel has been aptly described as "Funny, sad, sweet and strange."