An alcoholic screenwriter and sometime actor, Gordon Walker is a familiar figure in Stone's fictional terrain. Inherently intelligent and not without promise, Walker is presently spent on cocaine and depression.

Alone, adrift, and tormented by his existence, Walker is rushing headfirst into self-annihilation. Blinded by the glare of truth, Walker attempts to retreat into a dreamscape of drug-induced euphoria. However, the spell is short-lived and reality will undoubt: edly reappear to claim its inheritance.

Akin to Walker, Lu Anne Bourgeois is another unsusceptible victim within the novel. Vulnerable to the unnatural forces that take possession of the mind and body, Lu Anne is schizophrenic, dependent on a daily dosage of medication to control her interior state of madness. Demoralized and desensitized, Lu Anne attempts to break free of her bondage by artistic and ultimately spiritual triumph. Walker is compelled to intercede in her behalf, more for his benefit...