Gwyn Barry and Richard Tull have been friends since they roomed together at university. Richard Tull was a promising writer with a seemingly bright future. His first novel, 'Aforethought', was published, but 'nobody understood it, or even finished it.' Three years later, his second novel, 'Dreams Don't Mean Anything' was published in Britain but not America. His third, fourth and all subsequent novels were not published. His career flags and he finds himself becoming depressed, writing book reviews, articles for a small literary magazine and sub-editing for a
vanity press. To his chagrin, Gwyn Barry—whose literary skills Tull holds in low esteem—has written a phenomenally successful second novel, entitled 'Amelior' (about a rural utopia) and is in the running to win a lucrative and respected literary prize. Barry enjoys a rarified life, with his agent striking lucrative deals for 'Amelior Regained' whilst Tull toils away with his unsuccessful pursuits. Tull, increasingly envious, begins to manufacture ways of bringing Barry down. These begin relatively innocently as attempts to cause Barry inconvenience. Later, however, things become much more serious as Tull makes contact with violent men he later finds he cannot control. ==Themes==