Ellen Farnsby is a modern-day Scheherazade. And if she doesn't tell the story of a lifetime, someone else will be writing her obituary. She is kidnapped by Paige, a failed novelist with an ax to grind. Jeremy is a video store clerk whose one talent is fooling himself, and others, that he's an artist. He and a pop junkie of a detective named Lydecker are hunting for Ellen. Will Jeremy and Lydecker find Ellen before a vicious maniac edits her out of existence? Will Ellen write a brilliant novel or end up a tragic movie-of-the-week?