The orderly world of a Celtic studies professor is invaded by chaos: a nineteen-year-old former L.A. print model trying to recover from a methamphetamine habit. Cassandra Collier has been suspended for one year by the LUX agency and, as part of her agreement to return, has undergone treatment for her eating disorder and drug use at Northshore. She has now entered her settling down" period, as her advisor puts it, at Braemer College where she and the professor, against all odds, find themselves in an emotional vortex of abandonment and destruction."