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.