After leaving her upstate hometown for Greenwich Village, Elsie Tyler soon finds herself surrounded by admirers, including Jack and Natalia Sutherland, a married bohemian couple who help her launch a career as a model. But in this novel by the author of Strangers on a Train, middle-aged security guard Ralph Linderman is nursing his own obsession with Elsie, and he sets out to protect her from the "bad company" she attracts. When Ralph finds Jack's wallet on a morning stroll and returns it, he is entirely unprepared for the complex maze of obsession he is about to be drawn into.