It is 1974. American and English expatriates, artists, writers, and eccentrics find their home in a quiet town on the island of Crete. Among them, Horace Vaughn, a sixty-five-year-old gay American writer who wants to write the Great American Novel, Household Gods, and who in the meantime supports himself by dashing off detective stories. Horace's young Greek lover often annoys him, provides little satisfaction, and Horace idles his time away with alcohol, friends, and machinations. That is, until a young, enigmatic nineteen-year-old American woman named Helen arrives, another outsider. In Helen, Horace discovers someone brilliant, beautiful, and stubbornly mysterious. He is fascinated by her punk style and elusive pose. In this small town, gossip spreads fast, and Helen's past begins to follow her to Crete: a suicidal ex-lover appears without warning, and there are whispers of her long-dead sister.

The Henry Moore crowd dislike her, and a Greek waiter's wife threatens to murder her. When Helen vanishes, Horace is determined to follow her, to find her, especially her diary. His journey around Crete in his beat-up VW bug is funny and poignant, and for Horace, the mystery continues.