In Volume 2 of The Gay Street Chronicles, gay hero Bellerophon (Belle) Nash returns to Regency Bath after a four-year exile in Grenada. It's 1835. Belle meets Pablo Fanque, which sets him off on an ill-advised course of action that brings him to a low ebb. Hoping that Pablo Fanque will serve as a substitute for the man he left behind in the Caribbean, Belle agrees to help him achieve his ambitions as England's first black circus entrepreneur. His plans run into trouble with the arrival in Bath of Lord Servitude, the most unapologetic slave owners in the West Indies, and with Pablo's refusal to be something that he isn't. The ensuring contests between good and bad, and compromise and principle, play out alongside a cast of eccentric characters, many of them portrayed with whimsical humour, in whose company Belle builds the moral courage to challenge the racism of his day while brought down by the awareness of his betrayal of himself.