Cole Burnett, a Texas writer, needs to keep moving. At first, it's something in his blood pressing him, pushing him to write more, achieve more. Later, after the death threat, it becomes a way to stay alive.

Burnett is the kind of man whose need for freedom should send lovers running in the opposite direction. But he has a lanky charisma and the gift of listening, a somewhat rare quality for a man in the 1980's.

The women he encounters in Narcissi find his attention compelling, and they all get hurt, or cause hurt, to a greater or lesser degree. But hurt is never the whole story.

Each woman brings her own complicated life into her time with Cole, conflicts with husbands, traumas survived, needs postponed, children. And children grow up.

He rarely sees his own. They left home before he did.

He understands that loneliness compels him toward the women he meets on his travels--whether in a tavern, like Amelia; or a street dance, like Stephanie; or a book-and-author event, like Lorna. And others he connects with while working, like Dolly, Elsa, Trish and Gladys.

They all know something has to change.