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Adam Walker is accepted into The columbia university of literature together with a few of his friends. Walker is an aspiring poet and a good one at that.
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Walker meets Rudolf, a professor at Columbia at a party, together with his french girlfriend Margot. Rudolf and Walker talk about their common interest in literature whilst Margot keeps quiet.
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Born sends a letter to Walker regarding how, at the party, Margot found Walker to be very interesting and she thinks Rudolf should help Walker by having walker co-develop a telegraph with Born supplying the money, and Walker doing the writing
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Adam is invited to, and accepts to eat dinner at Born's house. During the dinner Born gets progressively more drunk to such an extent that he has to be escorted back to his room by Margot after asking some rather inappropriate question regarding Adam and his sexual urges.
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Adam sleeps with Margot 6 times whilst Born is away on a bussines trip in France. Born however, expected this and kicks Margot out of the house and is presumed to go back to her family in Paris.
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Born is not angry with Adam for sleeping with his girlfriend as he expected as much from a person like Margot. One night shirtly after Born and Adam find themselves going for an evening stroll, however, they are approached by an armed robber, but Born faints going for his wallet only to grab a switchblade out of his pocket instead. Born kills their assailant
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Adam does not go to the police immediately as he is threatened by Born. Yet, after a while he builds up enough confidence to tell his side of the story to the police. However, Born has already fled the country and travelled to back to Paris.
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A few years after Adam's still unresolved incident with Born, Adam is living in a small apartment together with his sister Gwyn. After a short while Adam gets a full-score for a job application at a library in New York, the first ever full-score in the library's history.
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Walker finds his job incredibly taxing on his mental health as it is exceptionally boring. This leads to him having a lot of very descriptive sexual thoughts during his work hours. This culminates in him and Gwyn (his sister) supposedly having a sexual relationship.
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After a month of living together with Gwyn, Walker travels to Paris. Whilst in Paris he runs into an old acquaintance from college; Cecile. Walker suspects Cecile of knowing Born, a grudge Walker still has. Therefore, Walker attempts to manipulate Cecile into giving him information about Born, however, they end up become friends in the process, and Born's case remains unsolved.
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A while after Walker left Paris Cecile is contacted by Born after her mother passes away. They exchange a series of messages ending in Cecile eating dinner at Born's house. Born then asks her to marry him to which he gets rejected.
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After having read through and analyzed the first part of Walker's new book Jim is bewildered. Jim did not know of all the things that had happened in this timespan (The first part consisting of when Walker meets Born, and lasts until Born flees to France) So he tries to comfort Walker slightly. By letting him know that he would very much like to read through his other drafts, whenever they are finished, an offer Walker makes use of as he thinks his second part is "a monstrosity"
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After reading through more parts of Walker's new upcoming book they plan to meet up in New York where Walker is living again to discuss potential future cooperation, in addition to Walker's deteriorating health.
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Jim Freeman, prevously a friend of Walker, is contacted by Adam. After telling Jim how he has been since their time at Columbia and asking the same of Jim, he lets Jim know that he wants him to read through the draft of the first part of a book he is making. Jim, now a distinguished author himself, accepts
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Jim arrives in New York only to figure out that Walker has died only three days before he arrived. After this is revealed to him he seeks out Gwyn to talk to her about Adam.
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Jim meets with Gwyn and Cecile to discuss what Walker was like and discuss his upcoming book. Jim also confronts Gwyn about their supposed incestious relationship yet she claims it never happened. After their talk Jim returns to San Francisco