Indy's standing on the window ledge of his sixth floor flat contemplating suicide, when the devil appears beside him and strikes up a conversation. Indy’s just been abandoned by his latest girlfriend and his world is collapsing into itself. The devil tells him destiny is just an illusion, and life nothing more than a backward story waiting for the colour of memory. The value of life, he goes on, is measured by the number of memories we create. He asks Indy to entertain him with his story while he’s deciding whether to jump or not. When Indy replies he has no story, the devil retorts that this cannot be true, as everyone has a story. So Indy closes his eyes begins the story of his life with the women who've coloured his life.
He starts with his affair with Alli and its background: he’s an Indian transplanted into the UK, his marriage arranged, a choice between five handpicked women; his life is controlled by his parents’ ambitions. When he and his first wife meet, at a matchmakers’, they spark off a chemistry, which they subsequently explore by chasing each other through London, opening sexually and sensually to each other. His parents, however, had hoped for a submissive, domesticated woman; what they get is a free spirit one who knows her own mind and has aspirations for a life outside their ambitions for their son. After four years Indy is still struggling to free them from his parents and this is the moment he meets Alli.
Indy and Alli explore each other for nine months, are planning a new life together, when Alli suggests they should stay apart for six months, just to be sure of their intent. He agrees, and begins his wait, neglecting Azurra, neglecting his business and all the people around him. He suspends his life, becomes totally obsessed with the moment the telephone will ring signalling a reawakening.
While waiting he meets a Spanish woman waitressing in Earls Court. He's persuaded by a friend that this woman is the ideal candidate to bring him back to reality. Cara doesn't want a lover, just a friend. Indy’s open with her about his affair and his marriage, but this doesn't prevent her falling in love with him. They embark on a relationship, even though she thinks he’s a fool for believing Alli will return to him. But he can’t satisfy her need for him; he’s too pre-occupied with Alli. For him, Cara’s just a substitute until Alli's return. Only now, looking back, does Indy realise the pain he’s caused, and that he's been waiting for a mythical woman when she was always there in front of him. But that thought cannot change his past. Alli stays with her husband. Cara tired of waiting for him to open, moves on, and he's left to pick up the pieces of his marriage.
Meantime Azurra’s discovered copies of his correspondence with Alli. She confronts him, and he admits his guilt, tells her the affair is over. Indy tells the devil that she’s suspected him all along, and that she also knew about Cara. She’s just been waiting to get her revenge. Azzura then tells her side of the story, recalling her life with Indy, their marriage and how she tried to commit suicide after she discovered the correspondence. She plans her revenge: she sends a note to Alli's husband detailing the affair and intimating he’s still being cuckolded; she send another note to Cara’s address in Spain graphically describing what will happen to her. Having destroyed Alli's marriage she then asks Indy for a divorce. Indy turns to Cara for support. She introduces him to her twin, Zule. Finally he believes that she is the woman he's been waiting for; she's a mathematician, a philosopher and she matches his sexual appetite, and he thinks she can create him as the perfect number. But his parents have other ideas. They've invited him to India, and when he goes back, finds that they've lined up another woman for him. Unable to bear the social pressure he gives in to their demands and marries again. Back in London he pledges himself to Zule and determines he will not bring his new wife over to the UK. However he's caught in his traditions, the dreams of his parents, and the demands of a woman who's not willing to share him. What does he do? He goes into his obsessive shell and kills off any hope of a future with Zule. Now looking back he knows his obsession with himself, his unwillingness to share himself has lead him to the window ledge, where the story had initially started. The devil says if Indy is to live then he has to comprehend his history and recreate himself; he has to start at the beginning and fall in love with life, give himself totally to the woman now standing in front of him. Can he do it? Does he have the inner strength? He believes he does, thinks he’s discovered the meaning of that one word he’s been looking for all his life.
