"In the stifling interior of a run-down London house, a man and a woman move through the cluttered rooms in heavy Victorian dress—although the time is the present day. He—who is perhaps Theo—enacts the role of Dr. Crippen. She—who is perhaps Vivien—is at times his beautiful Belle, at times Ethel le Neve, for whom Belle was murdered; at times she is Ethel disguised as a boy. So it is that they are able to make love. Within this erotic structure Viven rules; the man submits—curiously detached from his passion—in a game that is not of his choosing. Into this ménage already saturated with sexuality comes another figure: a woman infinitely depraved, a true voyeur, whose own sensual power finds release in destruction. With disinterested malice she creates for Theo a wholly new fantasy—his own tremendous game—which comes to absorb and possess him totally. The catalyst then departs, leaving the man and woman to play out their now opposing rolls to the shattering end."—Dust jacket.