At thirty-three, obsessive, hypersensitive Susannah Rabin lives with her mother, their cloistered world providing a barrier to the excruciating torment of human contact. But then Susannah's mother tells her that they are going to have a guest-- Susannah's cousin, a young man from New York. Susannah is horrified. Until the guest arrives, looking uncannily like Percy Bysshe Shelley. Fascinated by his exoticism, Susannah finds herself going to the movies, meeting his friends, swimming at night. But then Susannah's mother becomes troubled by their friendship, and asks the obvious question--"What is he doing in Israel?"