When John desires Mary or Mary desires John, what does either of them want? What is meant by innocence, passion, love ¿ and arousal, desire, perversion and shame?

These are just a few of the questions Roger Scruton addresses in this thought-provoking intellectual adventure. Beginning from purely philosophical premisses, and ranging over human life, art and institutions, he surveys the whole field of sexuality; equally dissatisfied with puritanism and permissiveness, he argues for a radical break with recent theories.

Upholding traditional sexual morality ¿ though in terms that may shock many of its practitioners ¿ his argument gravitates to that which is candid, serene and consoling in the experience of sexual love..