chunk: Fourth incarnation: Hector is finally forced to confront his capacity for cowardly indecision. He is a Portuguese man in The Renaissance shipwrecked on the coast of Africa. He is the master in this life, his wife from the first incarnation shipwrecked with him as his spurned lover, and the raider who spirited her away is her steadfast friend.
  Fifth incarnation: He is a modern man in New York, paying the consequences of cowardly indecision and gaining the strength to address the children he lost lifetimes ago. He is joined in this life by his master/slave/friend/soul mate, and former wife Janet and her husband/raider from lifetimes past. They support him but are people who are trying to find their own way, just as in the past lives.