Seventeen-year-old Jean, a troubled Jewish boy caught in the countercultural swirl of 1970s London, arrives at Compton Manor, a rural alternative boarding school for boys with "problems." Though he is an outcast among these outcasts, he is befriended by Tom, a much wealthier, more popular classmate, and it seems as if Jean's world might change.

When things turn romantic, Jean is tipped into a heady, overwhelming infatuation. What before seemed odd now brims with promise--the compulsory farming at school, reading poetry aloud, pagan ritual--and Jean thinks he might even pass his exams. But the differences between Tom and Jean--Tom is tuition-paying, Jean is on a scholarship; Tom social, Jean reclusive--create too wide a chasm to cross.

Set over one hot summer, Jean is a startlingly assured debut about the kinds of love that break us and make us whole.