The life of a respected British politician at the height of his career crumbles when he becomes obsessed with his son's lover.

Jasper Rawlins, a none-too-successful musician, finds himself chatting with a beautiful woman at his neighborhood bar. She goes home with him, direct and frank in answer to his nervousness. During the night, someone breaks into his flat and cuts her throat. He runs into the arms of the police, who dismiss his story, but release him while they search for the weapon. He investigates the crime, and over the next few days, meets a knowing pornographer, hit men, and other schemers. As dead bodies pile up wherever he goes, the police are soon looking for him with guns drawn. As he discovers secrets about a shadowy corporation, the police close in. Can he find someone to trust?

Ireland's bloody 1916 Easter Uprising, the suffragette movement in England, a Zeppelin raid, and a meeting with a rising young British cabinet member named Winston Churchill become vivid vignettes in Indy's life. So too do his brief but impassioned romances with the sister of a clandestine Irish rebel, and with an English suffragette for whom the vote comes before love.