Follows two half-brothers, Michael and Bruno, through the second half of the 20th century. Michael, a reclusive molecular biologist, is on the threshold of cloning a new kind of human being, free of the conflicts that go hand in hand with sexual desires. Bruno, a high school teacher, is a frustrated sexaholic with a penchant for young girls. The mother they barely knew was a guru groupie, a self indulgent 'liberated' hippie mama who abandoned them to different grandmothers and boarding schools, each unaware of the other's existence until their teenage years. Buffeted by disappointments and alienation, the two men struggle to come to terms with the malaise of modern existence and love.