Book one of the Bearfellow Traveller. The misadventures of Andrew Bearfellow begins in Pugetopolis, Washington. Follow him through a childhood spent in the Childrens' alcove of the public library, then on to a college degree that leads to a dead end job in a local bank's mailroom. The "mention" of some errant lingerie gets him hired into the testosterone-crazed world of credit-card sales, where he devises a promotion brilliantly aimed at an "untapped market" of his own financially foolish friends and relatives. An attack of conscience follows in the worst possible public place, followed by a forced leave of absence. He's put on the first international flight leaving that night and 10 hours later finds himself, totally unprepared, in London.