All good stories begin with fascinating characters, and this novel is replete with them. We have Gwen, nineteen, five feet two inches, voluptuous and gorgeous. Gwen is a budding journalist who will do anything to get a story — and the story she gets leads her far deeper into an awareness of herself and sexual experience than she ever planned to go. We have Dan, big and brawny, a young cop, who discovers in himself a love of Gwen so overpowering that it leads him to heights of heroism and to depths of human understanding. We have the shadowy Mr. Mason, a Las Vegas racketeer, whose shadow grows blacker and more vile with each succeeding revelation of his character. And then we have Cliff, a giant of a man who proves to have a gentle heart; Claudia, a whorehouse madame and a sadistic lesbian; and Bob, Gwen's understanding and intelligent journalistic employer.