[1] The story opens on a note of pure fantasy, showing school children from the future taking a field trip through time to see the dyspeptic poet Francis Xavier Enderby while he is asleep.

Enderby, a lapsed Catholic in his mid-40s, lives alone in Brighton as a "professional" poet - his income being interest from investments left to him by his stepmother.

Although he is recognised as a minor poet with several published works (and is even awarded a small prize, the Goodby Gold Medal, which he refuses), he has yet to be anthologised.

After spending what remains of his capital, he attempts suicide with an overdose of aspirin, experiencing visions of his stepmother as he nears death.

His cries of horror bring help, and he regains consciousness in a mental institution, where the doctors persuade him to renounce his old, "immature" poetry-writing self.