"I'm no longer young - but when did that happen?" James reflects after a failed flirtation. Whether it's the teenager on an Interrail trip or the retired man who has moved south, James and eight other men aged seventeen to seventy, traveling somewhere in Europe, must prove themselves, whether with women or whatever else they cling to. They would like to be strong. Yet, more often than not, they are cowardly, clumsy, vain, if not downright repulsive. And yet, they are also pitiable and fragile in their belated remorse. With unique finesse and irony, Szalay, the new star of British literature, delves into the little-explored psyche of the modern man with his novel.