English professor Serene Ransom is nursing a late-night drink and musing on the sexual possibilities of the hunky young bartender when a robbery interrupts her fantasies. She urges 'Catch' Clancy to kill the thief, but when he hesitates she doesn't. Catch knows what the cops will assume when they find a murder has been committed in his bar: he has a history with them. So he collects his meagre belongings and allows Serena to take him back to her apartment in the city, happy to be seduced by her compelling eroticism. Paris Murphy, her marriage in deep trouble, her father in intensive care, only pays half attention to the search for the missing men - 'Catch' and the robber. But her partner forces her to stick with the job and her intuition (and reckless willingness to use herself as bait) gradually come to the fore as they begin to unravel the evil web of violence surrounding Serene and Clancy.