Adelaide created a show based on her applications to the top twenty-five Graduate School fine art programs in the United States. Each piece consisted of her application letter, her letter of acceptance, and the portfolio of art that she had used as proof of her talent. The pieces she had submitted included obvious forgeries of other people's work, stuff she had drawn when she was six, and other similar garbage. Unfortunately the Dean of her university wasn't amused by the show and was suing her because of it.
The art establishment was afraid of Allister because he refused to play the game at all. They feared he had some grand master plan at work that would expose them all to ruin and infamy, and were desperate to get their hands on a journal he had created referred to as the "grey pages". The White Sodality, headed by the mysterious figure of The Platypus, would stop at nothing, including kidnapping, to get their hands on these infamous pages
Yet for all his so called anarchy, Allister isn't much more than a conventional, confused young adult when it comes to his feelings for Adelaide. At one time they were a couple, but at the beginning of the book they are no longer together. As the book progresses we begin to wonder if everything that Allister is doing is in order to avoid having to think about Adelaide and how much she really means to him. He has a reputation to consider and he can't blow his attitude of cool aloofness by showing how much it would devastate him to be rejected by Adelaide.
She, on the other hand is descending deeper into a pool of depression, as she keeps telling herself that she won't think of Allister, all the while thinking of him. She turns to booze and drugs for solace. Adelaide is also in possession of the infamous "grey papers," and is well aware of how much they are coveted by The Platypus. In those moments she can bring herself to care about things she realizes she must do something about them.
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