Paul Martin is not sure what he is, where he is going, and who he is going with - until he meets Persephone Stickx with whom he finds himself falling in love. Super confident modern Persephone is determined to lead Paul to inner enlightenment by way of the divine feminine.
Paul meets Persephone when friend property dealer Brad brings Persephone and her partner Hayden to Paul's house in the pristine hinterland, a haven for environmentalists and counterculture enthusiasts. Persephone and Hayden show a keen interest in an old religious picture Paul bought at the local market. They say the picture represents bondage for Paul. They want to help Paul break that bondage.
Their enthusiasm to help intensifies when they learn Paul knows Fr Robbie Pleasance, who is before the courts for the sexual abuse of a minor. Paul was in a relationship with the priest, and he needs to act. They enlist brilliant lawyer Aleta Broadbent.
To lead a reluctant Paul to inner enlightenment by way of the divine feminine, Persephone and Hayden expose him to a ritual that aims to release the female's sexual power. By this time, Paul's feelings for Persephone have surfaced.
But it does not go as Persephone plans. The ritual fails. Instead of Persephone leading Paul to the divine feminine, she finds her growing affection for Paul leading her away from her salvific task. Hayden sees the relationship sabotaging their enterprise and breaks it up. Paul is despairing.
By this time, a band of media people and lawyers pursuing clerical sexual abuse is circling Paul.
What can he do to escape Aleta's manipulation and the media's attention and have Persephone with him again? The barriers seem invincible as he drawn farther into a vortex of a national media frenzy over the alleged abuse of a minor by the city's Catholic archbishop.
The novel is in the style of Evelyn Waugh's early satires, satirizing the way the media, lawyers and sundry activist groups deal with clerical sexual abuse. It is a tale of outrageous hypocrisy that will sometimes make you laugh, sometimes cringe, and sometimes leave you appalled, but will always be 'glittering' in its satire, as one reviewer put it. There is no less satirizing of the zealous adherents of the New Age and Occult movement. This thoroughly revised edition expands the novel's major themes.