Part One. An Unwearying Holiday. Chapter One: The Whale's Song

The Whale's Song is a decommissioned cruise liner. Retired from shuttling tourists around the moons of Jupiter, it now spends its time as a boarding house above the planet. Oscar, a modern history teacher, boards the ship in search of a holiday. Through a case of mistaken identity, Oscar finds himself drawn against his will into the personal lives of the passengers on board.

Aside from this, life upon The Whale's Song is easy. Except that they are almost out of jam, and Oscar has a feeling that Chief Engineer Ima Diamond fancies him. To make matters worse, the ship has fallen on a trajectory course straight to the heart of a black hole, and the ship's captain has just charged him with the task of making sure the passengers don't panic.