Terry Fielding has his own way of escaping his problems. The jagged twists and turns of Soho. The stairwell leading down. He has a lot to escape from. An unrewarding job. A loveless, childless marriage. A neurotic wife obsessed with another woman's child. And a secret in his own past - a leather-bound scrapbook in his study filled with pictures of a little girl who died twenty-five years ago. When he meets the enigmatic Rosina, all that ceases to matter. Nothing matters but the time they spend alone together - the long nights in cheap hotels where they lie smoking side by side and talk about everything. Corruption. Amorality. Murder. But is Rosina really Terry's soul mate? When Terry finally realises how far apart they are, it's too late to do anything but the worst thing in the world ...