Edward Baltram, a college student living in London, gives his best friend Mark a sandwich laced with a hallucinogenic drug for a joke.

In search of his father, Jesse, Edward sets off for Seegard, the family home, away from the harsh reality of London.

As Edward progresses through the novel, he revives somewhat, thanks to the love of his eccentric father and his extended family of supportive women.

Meanwhile, Edward's stepbrother Stuart Cuno decides to give up his studies and goes in search of the "pure" life of an aesthete, to his family's bewilderment.

Stuart has a close bond with thirteen-year-old Meredith, the son of Thomas and Midge McCaskerville.