She finds him attractive, but her recent loss, the residue of her childhood Catholicism and her friendship with his wife Carrie all inhibit her from responding to his overtures - even though she can see that Carrie's friendship is partly tactical, an attempt to neutralise in advance a threat to her marriage.
Messenger shows her round the cognitive science building, knowing that a mural based on various famous thought experiments will intrigue her, and soon suggests that she offer him in exchange a guided tour of her bed. Visiting the university to teach creative writing is Helen Reed, a novelist recently widowed and trying to regain control of her life and her emotions. Messenger is a media don and charismatic philanderer, like one of Philip Roth's protagonists without the nihilism. Even the ground plan of the institution reproduces the divisions in the larger culture: the arts and sciences buildings were placed at opposite ends of the site, with the expectation that the gap between them would fill up, but for one reason or another this never happened.
Ralph Messenger is a professor of cognitive science, head of department at a no longer new university built on what was once a greenfield site, the (fictitious) University of Gloucester.
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