The Rhythm Method is the curse of young Adam Appleby's life and the cause of his children's.

While Adam gestates his thesis in the British Museum, his wife worries at home because her period is late and a fourth little bundle of (expensive) joy seems to be on the way, thanks to "Vatican Roulette." Though Adam's experience is constantly coloured by the authors he is studying, one distinction remains clear: "Literature is mostly about having sex, and not much about having children. Life is the other way round."