The late sixties and early seventies in America spawned all manner of idealistic dreams through which young people thought they could re-invent the notion of the modern. These three stories investigate the ways that established institutions at first allured, and then later deluded, the reluctantly willing protagonist Jack Lindsay. We see the virtuous earnestness of the young teacher waylaid by the shrewd encroachments of his own desire; the continued bending of his sexual morality to pursue the attractions of opulent living and haute couture; and, finally, the drowning of a young couple's aspirations in the ocean of their own excessive carnality. The voice that tells these stories is sparse, detached, cynical, and destined to learn little from failure.