An aging man named Savernake decides to take a vacation after losing his wife to dementia, and his actor friend Lockwood recommends the boarding house Happydene in Norgate, England. He mentions that the rooms are high, a cryptic message that confuses Savernake. Still, he went to school there as a boy and the quiet nostalgia appeals to him, so he decides to go. When he gets to Happydene, the landlady’s wholly unattractive daughter Alice greets him at the door and guides him to his room. Despite her appearance, he wonders if she would be interested in sex. He notices an odd interior decoration of a Gorgon head on the chandelier in his room, but dismisses it and goes out into the town. As he walks, he notices an old man ahead of him walking with a limp that reminds him of an old teacher, Hoppy. The thought disgusts him and he turns back to Happydene, where he has a quiet meal with Alice and the impossibly old Mr. Milson.  That night, he hallucinates that the Gorgon’s mouth opens and reaches hands down towards him as the ceiling becomes impossibly high. When he wakes, Alice tells him that Mr. Milson was taken to the hospital and should return soon. Savernake decides to leave for the day and walk towards his old school, where again he notices the old man who reminds him of his teacher and decides to confront him. To his shock, it is Hoppy, and they go to get coffee. Hoppy tells him about how he was fired soon after Savernake left school due to his unabashed pedophilia and sexual assault of the students. His admission makes Savernake recall his older brother’s suicide only a few years before. He leaves the meeting feeling sick and returns to Happydene, where again Alice serves him dinner and he retreats to his room. He lies on his bed and hallucinates the Gorgon coming down towards him from the high ceiling, only when he looks again, it’s Alice on top of him. The next morning, he’s wheeled out to the hospital under infinitely high skies.