Geoff is a man of 50, a man destroyed. In the chaotic circumstances of a Pride party in San Francisco he is given an opportunity to meet, Elizabeth Cromwell, a professional dominant. He asks her to find a woman named Prescott who is to apologize for events at a hotel, Tors Lake. A week later Elizabeth receives Geoff's gift of a valuable comic book collection. Elizabeth meets Geoff's mother's lawyer to ask that Geoff cease and desist his interest in her, but Geoff has disappeared. Soon after, Elizabeth is at a July 4 labor rally at San Francisco City Hall with a lawyer, Sheila Prescott. A huge explosion kills hundreds and spares Elizabeth and an old blind man's dog. They set off in a series of encounters. Each links a moment to a moment before and a moment after, weaving a thread of bizarre connections to a California Historical House. Upstairs is an old photograph of a railroad boxcar with the name, Tors Lake.