It's by no means clear just how much control Jeremy Davenant has over his own destiny. He believes that the blueprint of his future exists on a page torn out of a book chosen randomly twenty-two years ago, in a literary game of blindman's buff orchestrated by his scoundrel uncle Gerard. The Page is from an encyclopedia, and is supposed to chart out his life, which may or may not explain why the Zulu tyrant Shaka, the Indian love epic Shakuntala, and the Ukrainian town Shakhtyorsk all start to feature in his life-along with William Shakespeare and, of course, his dark lady.

Romantic and fatalistic, Jeremy finds himself teaching Shakespeare at a university, living in an apartment owned by Ukrainians, and waiting for his destiny to unfold. And unfold it does: one glance from a dark lady in the street below, and his life veers into chaotic mischance and misadventure. The woman is half-Indian, half-Czech Milena, who is even more mysterious than Shakespeare's own ladylove. And although Milena is ambivalent and complex, and requires as much decoding as the Page, Jeremy stumbles after her in his determination to follow his fate.