Author John Passfield contemplates writing a novel about the mythological figure Cassandra. Suddenly, he finds himself in the presence of her tormentor, Apollo, the god who -- seemingly as a whim -- has brought a catastrophic curse down on the head of an innocent human. John sees Cassandra as a mythical creature whose helpless situation epitomizes all that is wrong on the planet Earth. What a chance to confront a representative of the gods, ask...