The moment genteel Southern bachelor Tristram Heade arrives in Philadelphia in search of a rare book, a mysterious metamorphosis begins. He is mistaken everywhere for a man of whom he has never heard but soon comes to know fearfully well. His diabolical double is everything he is not: a high-living playboy and insatiable womanizer who goes by the name of Angus T. Markham.

The horrified Tristram Heade does his unsuccessful best to correct this macabre mistake - until an achingly lovely young woman comes to his hotel room to yield at last to Angus T. Markham's desire. Heade abandons all attempts to deny what is now his desire as well - and with this act, abandons his last hold on the guidelines of his past. He is in a time and place where all things are possible, and nothing is forbidden.

Tristram Heade follows the ravishing Fleur Grunwald into a world where pleasure and pain intermingle. Where the naked truth about her and her marriage is obscured by lies as intricately woven as the tattoos that cover her exquisite body. And where her startling shifts from outraged innocence to shameless sensuality make Tristram Heade stronger and weaker than he has ever been. He has become both her avenger and her slave.