Roger is a retired Professor of history. Once famous and admired as an academic star and a lifelong advocate for the rights of women, he has grown fat and self-indulgent, and is currently living in exile in Provence. A very public scandal of betrayal precipitated his fall from grace. His only hope of restoring his reputation is a memoir, or preferably a detached biography. He convinces his oldest friend, Clive, another retired academic, to write it. Roger's personal reflections take us back to the 1960s, where we learn of a life devoted compulsively to sexual adventure with countless women, mostly young feminists drawn to this charismatic man of principle fighting their cause. Clive is inclined to ignore these escapades. He is to write a professional biography.