An assembly of tales, from Britain, the USA, and the seas in between, explore different expressions of the gay male experience. The Lovely Life of Arnold drops into the life of New York fashionista Arnold, in seven-year leaps from the age of seven to forty-two. From birth, Arnold's parents knew their family was perfect and complete, because nothing could be better than a gay son. Lessons from Cruising sees an Asian schoolteacher link up with a multi-millionaire businessman one early morning, by the Thames. They head out on the rich man's yacht, in the company of the rich man's son and friend. Billy Budd: Captain Vere's Account reprises Herman Melville's Billy Budd, but for the first time takes the reader inside the stateroom on the ship, where the captain confronts Billy with the verdict of the courtroom.