The novel is about a Chicago triangle. In one corner of the three-sided affair is the beautiful Sherazade Downing, whose life is haunted by violence. The second member of the triad is Samir Zribi, a handsome foreign curator, whose objective is to recreate his student into his own design. Sherazade acquiesces to his teaching, both spiritual and physical. Samir obtains for her a job interview with the alderman-Frank Camelli-who completes the triangle- a member of the museum's board of directors and Chairman of the Cook County Democratic party and machine. Sherazade loves Samir and Frank both, but for different reasons. The rivals are consumed by their desires for her distracted from their respective world. The solution: Sherazade must die, and die she does not. She is saved by both lovers from an attempt to kill her by her father's murderer.