chunk: Heroin addict Mark Renton and his circle of friends are introduced: amoral con artist Simon "Sick Boy" Williamson (also an addict), simple-minded, friendly Daniel "Spud" Murphy (another addict), clean-cut athlete Tommy MacKenzie, and psychopath Francis "Franco" Begbie, who picks fights with people who get in his way.
  Renton decides to quit heroin and buys opium rectal suppositories from dealer Mikey Forrester to ease the transition. After his final hit (and a violent spell of diarrhea caused by cessation of heroin) he locks himself into a cheap hotel room to endure withdrawal. He later goes with his friends to a club, finding that his sex drive has returned, he eventually leaves with a young woman named Diane, and they have sex in her home. In the morning, he realises that Diane is a 15-year-old schoolgirl and that her "flatmates" are actually her parents. Anxious, Renton tries to ignore the incident, but is forced to remain in touch after Diane blackmails him.