With clear new eyes ... he saw the same rotten world. At 24, Nick Haygarth is already embittered by his stultifying life -- he is hopelessly in love with his work colleague, Anna, alienated from his friends and family, and trapped within the confines of his daily rut. A disaffected anger is slowly rising up within him. However, the unexpected Christmas gift of a camera opens up a brand new world for Nick, and soon he begins a passionate affair with older woman, Mel. But Mel is disillusioned, too -- bitter, jealous and damaged by her many perceived failures -- and the couple fall into a downward spiral of lust and self-hatred, forever doomed to poison everyone and everything they touch.