A cool and elegant debut novel, a satire on our fascination with the media and the private lives of the powerful, and a story of obsessive infatuation. Gaby Harvey is a young historian engaged in research at St Dunstan's College. She is also the niece of Sir Edward Hamilton Harvey, a media baron with international interests ranging from film and television to newspapers. His latest venture is a controversial new privatised media faculty at the ancient and traditional university where Gaby lives quietly, away from her uncle's world. Why is Sir Edward so determined to make this investment, and why isn't the new Professorship open to St Dunstan's finest? The answer to both questions could be contained in the dashing person of the new appointee, the handsome and arrogant Piers Gaveston, who appears to have his eye on higher goals than the university. Aloof, narcissistic and concerned solely with his own rising star, Gaveston embarks on a programme of iconoclasm which outrages his new colleagues and antagonizes Gaby who, against her better judgment, is hopelessly attracted to him. In spite of warnings from those who seem to know him better than she does, Gaby finds herself drawn into an obsessive relationship with Gaveston. But what is the source of his interest in her? And what is his secret?