James Alabaster, a man with a past but without a future, ekes out a bare existence on the fringes of Sydney's glitzy, gaudy cafe society. All that sustains him is his obsession with the beautiful but unobtainable Carla Sully, wife of one of Australia's richest men.
Then chance and a pornographic home video bring Carla and James together. One by one, members of the video's sizeable cast are dying of unnatural causes. Is it a bizarre coincidence or a murderous conspiracy? As James investigates, he's drawn into a shadow-world of blackmail and betrayal, of tarnished cops and standover men, where the past never lets go and sex and death walk hand in hand.
A sensible man would look for an exit. But when the thing you want most in the world seems within reach you keep going. Into the darkness, eyes wide open . . .