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Draftsmen can't fight dragons.

Then again, that's usually no problem - they generally don't have to. But Lafayette O'Leary does. When an accidental overdose of self-hypnosis wrenches him out of the dull (but safe) Mrs. MacGlint's Clean Rooms and Board and deposits him in the feudal, bedragoned world of Artesia, it takes him a little while to catch on, even with the attentions of the beautiful Princess Adoranne. Then he decides that he likes this new life of his - except for the part where he's supposed to get killed...

Twas boring in Artesia... or so thought Sir Lafayette O'Leary, ex-draftsman from Earth, and now seemingly ex-interdimensional swashbuckler extraordinaire as well. His battles were all won, his dragons all slain, and life was just the same boring round of riches, royal hunts and regattas.

Boring, boring, boring; until he walked past the azalia. Suddenly Artesia was gone, and O'Leary was trapped in "Melange," a world of giants and pirates, a world where goons and harlots are the spitting images (literallly!) of his own aristocratic Arteisan associates. And because they think that he's his double, lots of his new friends want O'Leary dead. Unless he can get through the interdimensional gate and find the continuum path back home, O'Leary's life will never be boring again. Just short.

Lafayette O'Leary, to his acute discomfiture, has an exhilarating and terrifying tendency to slip continua. And what might that mean?

It might mean finding oneself a gypsy with a ring in his ear at one moment, and then suddenly a crippled birdman unable to leave his nest because of the awkward loss of teleporting talent.

It might mean battling one's way back to the time stream where he started -- only to find himself already there, lording it over the populace like a tyrant.

The world, as Lafayette O'Leary knew it, disappeared in a flash. Perhaps it was his own doing - after all, he had the uncanny gift of creating alternate realities by sheer mental power.

But the result was a nightmare gone out of control. All O'Leary wanted was to find his wife and return to the familiar world of Artesia. Yet no sooner did he manage to extricate himself from one bizarre situation than he was thrust into another, equally threatening...

There was only one thing to do: he had to penetrate the very center of power from which his destiny was being controlled and - take it into his own hands!