Veronica Reynolds, a daydreaming, pre-med student at UCLA, enjoys going to nightclubs, having picnics at the cemetery, and analyzing Jane Austen Novels with her best friend, Beryl. One day during philosophy class, the handsome and exotic-looking Stephen Q. Dunne (a.k.a. Squid) smiles at her; and from that moment on Veronica becomes obsessed with him.

“Once, I had even followed him around for a whole day, sitting in on the lectures he attended and waiting outside his smaller classes, finding out exactly where he would be, and at what time, on any given day.”

She particularly enjoys the sight of Squid, as he strides through campus, with his black raincoat billowing behind him. But despite enjoying this obsession, Veronica ultimately decides that it’s time to grow up and focus on real men. So she stows away her memories of Squid and eventually gets herself a boyfriend. But then she unexpectedly meets Squid and is torn between her lingering feelings for him and her loyalty to her boyfriend who would otherwise, if she wasn’t always thinking about Squid, be perfect. But something about Squid keeps drawing her to him, (perhaps his appreciation of the weirder activities that Veronica herself enjoys) and she’s never quite able to put him aside.