For Andy Gates it is no longer a question of 'Aren't you so-and-so?' but rather, 'Didn't you used to be . .?' Andy and Phil Jessup were famous for fifteen seconds. Their band had a worldwide hit when their single 'Waterbed' was used on the soundtrack to a jeans commercial but overnight success slunk away at dawn and their Difficult Second Album, 'Luxury Amnesia', was never released. Five years later Andy is eking a living as a painter and decorator and Phil's solo career as a singer has foundered. In his search for a short-cut back from obscurity, Phil introduces Andy to the sinister and destructive world of the Bowring family. Posh, rich and stupid would-be musician Mark Bowring has everything to live for. His speculator father, Richard, might have run into problems developing golf courses in the Far East but Mark's young step-mother Emma wants to have it all - except for the job and the kids. Hoping to rekindle lost love, Andy finds himself redecorating the Bowring house at the precise moment when greed, sloth and thwarted ambition pull the family apart, drawing Andy into a quicksand pool of lies and extortion until it looks as if he might be back in the papers again, this time facing a murder charge.