The title refers to the Oedipus legend of the sphinx which made cities sick, tore families asunder, and set sons against fathers and daughters against mothers. Set in Montreal and Ottawa, Return of the Sphinx illuminates the conflict between Alan Ainslie, idealist, patriot, intellectual, and his son Daniel, a young revolutionary Quebec separatist. It is combined with the tender love affair between young Chantal Ainslie and Gabriel Fleury, friend and contemporary of her father.