Two teenagers become best friends at boarding school, growing ever closer as one falls under the spell of the poetry, personality, and physical beauty of the other: Michael, whose red-silk dressing gown worn for their intimate reads entrances the other boy in ways he is not aware of until after they are expelled. Suddenly Michael confronts him....

Later, life takes diverging paths for them until a dramatic turn of events causes the loner to find he has his own special power to bring both of their lives back into focus.