<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10pt">This is a perceptive summary of a plot that did not seem so plain on first reading:<br><br>. . . The important thing here is that Chelle is at risk and Skip morphs into
an adventure hero to save her, at one point leaping over a railing,
firing a submachine gun into a group of hijackers. This behavior
surprises him, but it gratifies him too because it changes his image of
himself.<br><br>Between the third-person point of view, Wolfe
intersperses Skip’s (and later Chelle’s) first-person meditations. From
the first page, Skip has worried that he is an old man. Chelle’s
original plan was that she would return to a rich contracto, and he
would get a beautiful young contracta. The plan has worked but isn’t
satisfying either of them. Skip is wealthy, but Chelle is uncomfortable
about how he makes his money. Chelle is still beautiful to Skip, but she
sees herself as damaged. Because she has the thoughts and impulses of
another woman, she also worries that she is mentally ill. . . .</div></body></html>