Divorce and the loss of his job have left Peter at the mercy of a series of psychologists. Teaching at an all-black college in the Deep South promises a new beginning. Within hours after pulling off the Interstate, Pete has an apartment, an answering service, and a new girl friend, Peri Mattox. But the presence of so many blacks makes him nervous. The woman whose job he's taking hasn't left yet and doesn't plan to. Senior faculty resent his existence. And his cover-your-ass boss makes it clear it's to be sink or swim. His position at the college seems increasingly temporary. Changes he thought he'd made to his department (accompanied by all the necessary signatures) never materialize. He turns to Peri for comfort, only to find she is leaving him for a woman. The opening chapter of this novel, an invocation, found Peters in the office of a psychiatrist. In the closing chapter, again in a psychiatrist's office, we view the events of the novel in a completely different light.