Once blessed with everything he thought he ever wanted, Sid Carver finds himself on the verge of collapse. A string of reckless decisions has left him without a family, without a career, without an identity.

The dark clouds seem to part the day a woman named Holly Tithe moves into the apartment across the hall. He sees her as a “puzzle with missing pieces.” She sees him as a “broken toy” in need of mending. He cannot grasp her cosmic views on the nature of human existence. She cannot fathom why he keeps an enormous python and a pair of vicious lizards caged in his living room. Despite their differences, their lives quickly intertwine.

Just as Sid finds a possible route toward redemption, new obstacles block his path. One of them is a Neanderthal-like brute who seems to have won Holly's affection. As Sid's darkest impulses take hold, he must decide which role he wants to play in the life he has left—predator or prey.