A novel in three discrete parts. "The" Merlin in Rio de Janeiro has a strange encounter with Bernardo that changes his life; Penelope issues an impossible challenge to Desmond, catalyzing him to go to Addis Ababa and Rufaa; and Royce's revelation leaves Gareth little choice but to act, and yet architecturally adds music to his life at the same time. The characters create their own paradoxes and they are simultaneously forced to solve and live out ones that they did not bargain for. A complex rendering-out through fiction of thoughts that necessarily vitalize life. The narrative itself is characterized by great rapidity of change of scenes and characters. Perhaps Hamlet's assertion, "This was sometime a paradox, but now the time gives it proof," may be true of the complicated arena of this novel.