April 1st 1972. Marcus Ross, a wealthy but naive junior lecturer in medieval history at an anarchic provincial college, submits his doctoral dissertation for examination at Cambridge and prepares for the end of session examinations of his own students. He is dimly aware that he is being pursued by the bewitchingly beautiful Sophie Davenport and is attracted to her but refuses to breach professional ethics by acknowledging his feelings for an undergraduate. When a malicious colleague deliberately sabotages Sophie's degree result Marcus succumbs to his innate curiosity and gives in to Sophie who seduces him into a student cult which practises spiritual revelation through ritual sex. As his academic career spirals into disaster Marcus joins Sophie and her mysterious friends on an erotic voyage of sexual and psychic discovery which challenges his confidence in the rational world and brings him face to face with the mysteries of love and death.