A novel that is at once a wry, acute portrait of a contemporary good guy, a brilliant picture of suburban life, an extraordinary erotic evocation of the world of S & M sex, and a highly suspenseful plot. The narrator, Phillie, is a good guy—and he is indeed good, as a husband, a father, a citizen, a human being with a complete set of suburban neuroses. But all that turns upside down when his lusty, pleasure-loving screenwriter partner (and oldest friend) dives headfirst off his roof deck into his empty swimming pool, and Phillie, convinced this was the last man in the world to have committed suicide, is determined to find out the truth about his death. He finds himself exploring what lies behind the facades of affluent suburbia and entering a universe of sexual extremes, drugs, and dangerous characters; and as the stakes rise and the body count grows, Phillie risks his marriage, his family, and his life—and his very soul.