Indira Patel was an Indian-born parastic ecologist at an American university. She was divorced with two adult children. During an evening at Mandelbaum's, Indira met Stan, a Germanic languages professor specializing in Gothic, who also taught at the university. The two hit it off discussing their respective fields. After Indira explained how certain parasites, such as malaria, flatworms, and Toxoplasma gondii could influence the behavior of their respective hosts, Stan wondered if there could be a parasite that could live in people, but required another host for sexual reproduction, and whether such a parasite could alter human behavior to allow for the required change in host. Indira allowed that, unlike some other animals, human behavior is difficult to influence, but would not say that