Ami Shulman wanted something better for herself, something greater than the slums of California. So she took the necklace-the Plaitstar-and found herself deep in the unappeasable palate of murky sufferings; and through the pleasures of death she uncovered a way out, a way beyond damnation. But through the body of another woman, she finds that those that took her want her back to finish what they left behind to hell-bound inventions. Through her escape she has brought two others into her affair with the condemned, and the penalty of her wayward slip will end in blood and terror...and for one of them, a nightmare will take their souls.