Clem Glass was a successful photojournalist, fired by his conviction that only photographs could capture the world's true face. Then, in Africa, he witnesses the grotesque aftermath of a genocidal massacre and returns to London with the belief that people, including himself, are fundamentally wicked.

Now nothing - work, love, sex - can rouse him, and no other outlook can shift his altered vision. Not his father's Christianity, nor the new-found humanitarianism of his friend and fellow journalist Silverman. The one close relationship Clem is able to maintain is with his older sister, Clare, who has been struck down by the return of a mental illness she had been free from for twenty years. Together they set up home in the rural Somerset of their childhood, and together they keep the darkness at bay. But just as Clare begins to recover, news arrives out of the blue that the man responsible for the massacre is under arrest in Brussels. Clem's determination to confront the author of his nightmares sets in motion a startling sequence of events, and on his return to London he embarks on an inward journey that will lead to his own recovery.