This is the story of Peter Rhodes who believes we are prevented from truly expressing ourselves by social constraints and the belief that only perfection will do. But he discovers that altruistic motives carry a price when he is forced to negotiate conflicting views of moral integrity, the love of a capricious wife, the potential for unimaginable wealth and power and his own moral certainty. The structure draws upon the Epic Cycle although it is not so much a retelling as an exploration of amoral divinity, temptation/choices, principle and futility in the face of a conflicted world.