London 1759 and Jack Absolute's life is easy. A scholar at Westminster School, a master with cricket bat or billiard cue, he has both a girl he worships and a courtesan teaching him the ways of the world. Yet he plans to give up all carousing and begin a new life-if he can just stay out of trouble for one night...After duels, battles, frantic escapes and a brutal winter in a Canadian cave, the schoolboy will vanish and a man appear. To come of age, Jack Absolute must be blooded.