Flaminio de Conningsfield - petty smuggler, megalomaniac Dane, Himmler buff, unaccredited psychologist - biding his time between "military coups" in an ashram guesthouse in southern India, meets and becomes infatuated with the beautiful, suicidal Deborah.
Overhearing her say that "salvation" lies in being able to love even the lowest, slimiest creature of the earth — Flaminio, for instance — our hero takes on the challenge of winning her love. Although the young American woman totally ignores him, flaunting her sexual desire for Tom and "CIA," he patiently awaits his chance.
It is at a beach resort on Ceylon, surrounded by palm trees, coral reefs, vice and violence, that Flaminio proves his devotion to Deborah and finds the key to her despair.
The reviewers say:
"It is a rare case, and a pleasure indeed, to find a novel that actually comes to grip with ideas. Flaminio may well remain with such literary fantacists as Clappique in Man's Fate, as unique and unforgettable ... a criterion that signifies quality in any novel."
— The Santa Fe Reporter
"A fresh and disturbing account of the physical, emotional, and intellectual adventures of emotionally displaced Westerners roaming about India and Ceylon in the 1960's, caught up in the problems of that time — and ours."
— New Mexico Magazine
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