Relax. It's safe. It's only a story. It's 1999 in San Francisco. Beth Sheller publishes erotic fiction under a pseudonym, establishing a comfortable boundary between her everyday self and her darker imagination. Even around her friends - dominatrices and slaves who inhabit the City's gritty sex club scene - Beth keeps her distance. She observes, drawing creative inspiration, but not participating. Writing is her sanctuary, her identity, her therapy. At a crossroads both with her work and her precarious mental health, Beth has been taking time lately to confront some old demons. She's analyzing an unhappy childhood and coming to terms with the wild mood swings which have plagued her adult life. It is this inward focus which prevents her from noticing events on her periphery. Events which don't seem connected to her. Events that may soon draw her into a nightmare. A nightmare she could never have imagined.