Besotted by the women who inflame, entice but usually elude them, this book tracks three men from the 2nd World War into the present century. Dr. Elder is a classicist/polytheist, who, after the Battle of the Bulge, emerges physically intact and searches for a wife and a stress-free life. Freddy, Dr. Elder’s unprepossessing son, aches to live up to his mistaken image of his father. Daniel Shaver, Dr. Elder’s protege and Freddy’s rival, is a bubbling cauldron of ambition, ego, and irrepressible id.