Two men of integrity and intellect are confronted with the knowledge that they are deviants from the normal pattern of our society – that most people in that society would abhor and persecute them if they openly avowed their difference. Bruner, the blackmailer Stuff, the hard-boiled sailor who worshipped Philip. There are other well-drawn characters in this drama – Phillip's exceptional family his fiancée and her mother Tim's fascinating wife Lt. From that moment the struggle begins – a tense and shattering emotional upheaval composed of aversion, self-contempt, admiration and – finally – love.

He is engaged to be married as soon as he is discharged from the Navy, and he intends to rear a big family, to take over the operations of his family's bank and other interests, and to become a responsible and civic-minded leader in his community.Īs the story opens, he has almost reached the refuge and security he has carefully planned. One or two incidences in his life have shaken him profoundly and have made him determined ruthlessly to crush any tendencies in himself as well as to avoid any close relations with other men. A product of rural American mores and attitudes, he has a fierce contempt for 'queers' and at the same time a deep and secret dread that the germ of homosexuality maybe buried somewhere within himself. Tim, the older the two, has already recognized and resolved the problem of his sexual deviation. Women are very much attracted to both of them. Other men respect and admire their courage and ability and even their physical prowess. Their backgrounds and personalities are thoroughly American, and they live and work in a completely normal man's social and professional world. There is no suggestion of the effeminate – nothing that could evoke the characterization of gay.

Both are in every obvious respect what is generally termed masculine. This is primarily the story of two young men, Philip Froelich and Tim Danelaw, who are irresistibly drawn to each other.

Quatrefoil by James Barr