The price of a soul, or cost of success, for a hero in Hollywood.

Robert Peterson, encouraged by easy words and the success of one novel, is a Hollywood innocent. His first lessons are harsh; pornographic films with a waiter's job to pay the rent seem the only option. Then he meets a powerful, eccentric British producer who, liking a Svengali role, adds Robert to his stable of wannabes. But there is a price....

Bryan Forbes' powerful novel is filled with great characters. The women in Robert's life include the wholly ambitious, sexy Amanda; the domesticated Tracey, with the morals of an alley cat; and the beautiful, empty Lauren, whom only the camera defines. And the men who teach him the lessons of life include a knife-throwing English director more histrionic than his stars; the agents, double-dealing in wives and clients; and the fellow scriptwriters with strange secrets.

Who could live in the middle of all this scheming ambition and survive?