Triptych (Frey novel)

Before

The novel begins in a small Welsh town in 2013, where Basil Grey, a mechanical engineer and a member of the United Nation's run Institute, has just witnessed his lover, an alien named Kalp, being shot to death in their living room. Basil's coworkers, led by Agent Aitken, shot him for a traitor and a spy, and drag Basil out of the house and to the Institute's interrogation rooms. He is joined by his wife, Gwen Pierson, and as she tries to convince him that Kalp had betrayed them, Basil has a revelation about a small mechanical device he had seen in the Institutes workrooms, which he has nicknamed a "Flasher".

Part I: Back

Narrated by Evvie Pierson, the first part of the book opens on a fall day in 1983 on the Pierson Family farm. Evvie's gardening is interrupted when an alien spaceship crash lands in her raspberry patch and the pilot attempts to murder both her and her infant daughter, Gwennie. They are saved by Basil Grey and an adult Gwen Pierson, who didn't realize that the Flasher would make them travel backwards in time.

Over the course of twenty four hours, Basil attempts to repair the Flasher so they can make a return trip to the 21st Century; Gwen, Basil, and her father Mark bury both the body of the alien pilot and the space ship; and Gwen reveals to Evvie that they have a tumultuous relationship in the future and that Gwen has stopped speaking to her mother. Evvie blames herself and resolves to do her best to repair the rift when Gwen has grown up. Gwen also reveals that she was married to both Kalp and Basil in a triad relationship called an Aglunate, a tradition of Kalp's people, but that Kalp was killed for selling secrets about the Institute to a group of assassins who are targeting Institute employees. With the help Evvie, Basil and Gwen realize that the assassins are time travelling to target Aglunated Institute Employees and as such, Kalp can't have been the traitor.

Overwhelmed with relief and grieving their lost lover, Basil and Gwen return to 2013 to clear Kalp's name and to try to locate the actual traitor.

Evvie writes a letter to Kalp, intending to warn him of his impending death in an effort to change the future.

Part II: Middle

Told from Kalp's POV, this section encompasses his first meeting with Basil and Gwen (who are already dating and living together) at the Institute through to his death. Kalp is assigned to a team with Gwen and Basil, who are working together to try to build a solar power generator based on shared alien technology. Over the course of the section, it is revealed that Kalp's home planet was destroyed in a natural disaster and a very small ship of refugees was able to escape and seek asylum on Earth. Kalp's family – his Agulnates Maru and Trus – were among the dead. Kalp had volunteered to work at the Institute, which was set up by the United Nations in an effort to aid the aliens in acclimatizing to human cultures.

Overwhelmed by the kindness shown to him by Basil and Gwen, Kalp soon falls in love with the couple and moves in with them. He convinces them to become his lovers on Christmas Eve, several hours after Gwen has revealed that she has fallen pregnant with Basil's child. There is an extremely negative media backlash to their Aglunation, and as a result the Aglunate is attacked outside of a concert hall. Gwen loses the baby and Kalp is grievously injured.

An unknown assassins group begins to target Institute Employees, and Kalp is suspected of selling Institute training secrets to the group and placed under house arrest. Kalp receives a vaguely threatening letter from an anonymous stranger and decides that he must attempt to escape the Institute and clear his name. He is, however, caught by Agent Aitken and shot.

Part III: After

Basil and Gwen have returned to 2013 twenty four hours after they left. At first they are taken into custody for being AWOL and theft, but they eventually convince the Institute of both Kalp's innocence and their own. They are allowed to join a secret ops mission to break the assassin's circle and capture the ring leaders.

During the assault, Gwen and Basil stumble upon a warehouse where exactly the same alien ship that they shot down in 1983 is preparing to travel back in time. They are surprised by the pilot – not an alien after all, but Agent Aitken, who reveals that she is both the mastermind behind the assassins circle and the traitor. She is an extreme bigot and zealot and has vowed to purge the world of the disgusting, unnatural people who participate in Aglunates, and has figured out how to use the alien technology to travel in time to kill those who accept and love the aliens before they can grow up and pervert the Institute.

Gwen is injured in the attempt to stop her, and Basil unsuccessful at destroying the ship. He is, however, able to sabotage it. He then realizes that Agent Aitken has travelled back to the Pierson Farm in 1983, where he and Gwen will shoot the ship down and kill Aitken before the rogue agent has the ability to murder infant Gwennie.

Next

Basil and Gwen travel to the Pierson Farm in 2013 to retrieve the buried space ship and Aitken's remains. They travel alone in order to maintain their privacy and to keep media speculation to a minimum before the trial of the remaining assassins.

After they have unburied the space ship, Mark coerces Basil to join him in mucking out barn. They discuss Basil's intentions towards Gwen, and Mark reminds Basil that he owes him a favour for destroying their betamax. Mark then offers Basil a family heirloom ring with which he'd like Basil to propose marriage to Gwen.

Basil decides that he will, both in memory of Kalp and in order to open a new chapter in their lives where the shadow of the tragedy can finally be left behind. As he approaches the farm house with the ring, Basil catches sight of Evvie and Gwen's tearful reconciliation through the kitchen window.