This is a story of a young scholar, born in Wales, who takes a ride on a train from Paris headed for the Balkans to study under his mentor Professor Aristophanes, a professor of paranormal psychology in Cairo. Given an assignment of reading the professor's seminal work: "Paranormal Psychology. Being a Treatise on Evolution of the Arcane and Mystical Rites of Kalliste (Thera/Santorin) Society of the Ancients" and "The Egyptian Book of the Dead," Nathan becomes mesmerized and has a difficult time accommodating the vagaries of a train trip and the intellectual and emotional stimulation of the books and some of the people on the train. Time and space become meaningless or of extraordinary importance depending on the state of his thought.