Alice Loudon seems to have everything: close friends, a loving boyfriend, a successful career. Then one day, she meets a starnger while crossing the street and impulsively, immediately abandons her old, safe life for a passionate affair. It leads her into a dark, dangerous realm of eroticism and extreme experience that both entices and alarms her. Adam Tallis, heroic surviv Alice Loudon seems to have everything: close friends, a loving boyfriend, a successful career. Then one day, she meets a starnger while crossing the street and impulsively, immediately abandons her old, safe life for a passionate affair. It leads her into a dark, dangerous realm of eroticism and extreme experience that both entices and alarms her. Adam Tallis, heroic survivor of a disastrous mountaineering expedition, teachers her things about herself she never knew. As She learns more about her lover as she enters his world of risk and transgression, and begins to uncover a past filled with troubling secrets. But love and sexual obsession overwhlem her until they threaten everything: her safety, her sanity, and finally her life.