Art Lake is a simple everyday kind of man with a turbulent past. He turns to introspection and meditation to deal with the stress and pain that past turbulence produced. While meditating he learns to shift into the form of a common house cat. Art is content to use his new found power to supplement his diet by eating mice (poverty can do strange things to a man) and to reduce boredom by chasing moths. He has no plans to be a hero and as he leaves middle age he has gained enough wisdom to not dream of being one. The Universe has other plans.