The novel centres around Timoleon Vieta, a little mongrel dog with black and white patches of fur and eyes that are described as being as pretty as a girl's.

He reminisces about his failed career and former lovers, but is surprised when a man claiming to be a Bosnian shows up at his door with a business card he says Cockcroft gave him in a bar in Florence; Cockcroft often has such drunken weekends when he attempts to pick up men.

[2] In return for the occasional odd job and weekly fellatio, Cockcroft provides him with accommodation, but Timoleon Vieta, who is a good judge of character, takes against the Bosnian, and the dislike is reciprocated.

[2] "Timoleon - Vieta" and "Carthusians - Cockcroft" were printed on the spines of volumes 22 and 5 respectively of the 14th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.

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