The central character of "My Name Is Legion" is Peter d'Abo, a black youth from (the fictitious area of) Crickleden in South London. 16 years of age, he is the illegitimate son of Mercy Topling, an office worker who, due to her then promiscuous lifestyle, honestly cannot say who Peter's father is—either one of a number of journalists from "The Daily Legion" where she was employed when she became pregnant in 1985, or Lennox Mark himself, the proprietor of that paper. However, it could also be Father Vivyan Chell, an Anglican monk who lived and worked in Africa but with whom she had a spontaneous and illicit sexual encounter while he was visiting her parish church in Crickleden. Now married with two younger boys, who do not get along with their older brother, Mercy Topling senses that her son Peter, who has been playing truant of late, is not well and may even be dangerous to others but does not do much about it except consult Kevin Currey, the local social worker. While Mercy sees in him "an accepter of human incurability", Currey is in fact a paedophile who has encouraged Peter to have sex with him and thus contributed to the boy's downfall.