Vidal uses himself as one of the main narrators of this unusual book and shows himself finding the artistic and moral freedom in Europe that is denied to him in conventionbound America. The book is also a kind of potpourri of such fashionable modern sexual practices as incest, autoerotic asphyxia, pederasty, and nymphomania. It takes such a genial, casual view of these practices that it immediately identifies itself as peculiarly modern in outlook, making the point that the time has passed to view such matters with anything more than ennui.