Summary

During his visit to London, Matthew Wilks, a renowned physicist, learns that charges have been brought against him in New York. The short story recounts the events that resulted in the charges, beginning eleven months earlier, when Matthew gives a lecture in a small college in Delaware. A young Indian-American woman, Prakrti, approaches him at a cafe and says that she is a freshman at the college and a big fan of his physics blog. She is flirtatious, and suggests walking him to the building where he will lecture or meeting with him sometime afterwards, although Matthew rejects her suggestions. After the lecture, while he was signing books for the few attendees, Prakrti approaches him and asks him to sign a sheet from her notebook since she cannot afford a book. Matthew is made uncomfortable by her enthusiasm, but notices her attractive physical...