The late 80s is the time period pictured where a student in the depth studies of psychology/philosophy, invited on a night out by a Hong Kong exchange student learns of the abuse of a young runaway from the small town of Welland Yvonne Levesque. She sought refuge from a mysterious past and abusive situation yet her savior seems more troubled and abusive than her past. T/f is Yvonnes savior and is mired in a troubled past, and a family of abuse as well and their life soon unravels in a strange climax which will leave the reader spellbound to its final mystery. The student at the university, trained interested in psychology philosophy, hears a confession from the Lovely Yvette, a confession of abuse at the hands from him who she sought help and refuge, and soon turns to the friend turned investigator and eventual secret admirer Terryas a last straw for help in the small town of Welland. The sleuthing abilities of the undergraduate Terry seems unrivalled and he soon falls for the young Yvonne, tries to extricate her from the machinations of her husband Tim Fong and his family and social milieux, he enters on the scene and must deal with the skeletons in his past and the shifting mad world of these fellow small town travelers. The story rather than being told from the point of view of time...is brought to vivid life from several vantage points of time many years later from Toronto where Terry is married and his life fractures and falls apart and loses his family to Vancouver…Hong Kong...as he tries to piece together the abuse and PICTURE of the young YVONNE… the tale and investigation is not only a help… but to understand her and paint her as she appears in this harrowing tale. The novel is told in the first person by Terry who tries to paint her picture and we must judge for ourselves, through his poems, and coming to terms with his own life and that of his characters, and his search for Yvette, in body and also to grasp her essence, whether he has succeeded. His poems throughout are expressive of his state of mind.
