Virginia Fly is drowning

Quiet, clever, sensible Virginia Fly, still a virgin at thirty-one, harbors erotic thoughts of an intensity and vividness unimagined by her suburban parents, her unassuming elderly suitor Hans or even her virile American pen-friend of twelve years, Charles Whitmore Oakhampton Jr - Charlie.

When Charlie announces that he is, at last, to visit England, it seems too much to hope that he should make Virginia's dreams of passion reality.

Yet his arrival coincides with her appearance on a television documentary and suddenly Virginia is presented with a bewildering variety of opportunities to rid herself of her virginity.

The only question remaining seems to be whether any of them - even the suave and delicious stranger Ulick Brand - could possibly fulfill her considerable expectations.