It’s a hot summer night in a small town in North Carolina.

A pretty girl named Anna Shockley has arrived in the emergency room after a drug overdose. And so, David Livingston, emergency room orderly, fledgling artist, and incorrigible romantic, meets the obsession of a lifetime.

When David moves into the communal house where Anna lives, he soon discovers that Anna Shockley is dangerous to herself and others—and that there are those around her, drawn by the “doomed shout” of her beauty, who are far more dangerous.