Maurice Wylie is a medical man with a complex, troubled background and a nagging conscience. His travails thread through this novel featuring a kaleidoscopic array of character and circumstance. The theme of human identity and relationships is juxtaposed in time and space at many levels. "In common with the river, we are all subjected to tidal influences." There are a number of important characters (some owning similar names) including the brothers Russell and Warren Styles, the latter who becomes an affluent, successful business man with architectural connections; hence all those towers reaching for Utopia anticipating, in a canny way - and as the cover illustration might suggest - the events of September 11th 2001.