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Cilla Asher is living a perfect life, until the mysterious Peter Kirov appears one evening in her office at the university with a request that she does not refuse.
Peter, born to a French mother and a Russian expatriate father, is a visiting professor of anthropology, the department headed by Cilla’s lover, Tom. Cilla comes to realize that Peter’s emotional distance comes from his former relationship with Katrina, a subject in his research on women in the sex trade. Ignoring professional standards, he fell in love with her and lost her when she disappeared one day and never came back to him.
When Peter later insists that he control what happens in their relationship, Cilla agrees, willingly giving in to his instructions on what she is to wear, his sexually charged text messages, intimacy in public places, and surrendering to all Peter’s desires which ultimately become her own. Peter’s demands come at a pivotal and high-stress moment in Cilla’s life and academic career, a career that meant giving up her dreams of becoming an artist. Until she met him, Cilla thought she had everything she’d ever want, including a long-term relationship with another professor. Peter, the stranger with whom she’d only exchanged brief glances, offered a diversion from the stress of an upcoming tenure decision.
Does Cilla choose the security of life with Tom? Or does she embrace the dangerous passion she experiences with Peter?
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