Every time he speaks others seem to die. He loves a woman but is terrified of the words he must say. He wants to be with her but is afraid of causing her death. If it were not for her smile he would not have taken the risk.

Haunted by the death of her twin sister, she has known nothing but loneliness. Having watched the world and herself from a distance she is desperate for emotional contact, desperate for intimacy. She wants to be with him but is afraid of being suffocated by the relationship.

In a work that echoes Sartre's phrase, 'hell is other people', this innovative fiction charts the development and destruction of a relationship of an unnamed couple as they explore the complexities of their feelings in a series of revealing, deeply touching and sometimes troubling conversations. This thought-provoking and moving novel is a detailed exploration of the emotional turmoil that lies behind the words of two people desperate for love but unable to make sense of the situation in which they find themselves.