Meet the hot-house student talent in a University Creative Writing course for would-be poets, novelists, dramatists ? and some talents not so hot. Rivalries burn and grow dangerous. Sex simmers. Lucy Corth, a lecturer, is given the sack and almost immediately afterwards turns out to be a published literary genius. Meantime, Principal of the University Caspar Ballaugh must do what he can to suppress these internal wars and pull the college up from its low spot in the educational league tables, so that it can qualify for bigger Government money and survive. His job is made trickier by the fact that the Government's policy seems to change every other day. One way for Ballaugh to secure glory for his university might be to help get the local city a glistening European award for cultural achievement. He works on it gamely, but there are mighty snags.