After a brief but delightful intermezzo with a visiting Roumanian composer, Laura Thornby, independent and in her forties, encounters a struggling young 23 year old writer named Claud, and is swept by an irresistable, exultant desire to interfere, manipulate, experiment with him - for his own protection, of course He will fit nicely into her well-ordered life, for a while What she does not foresee, however, is she may have to play second fiddle to a character in his novel