It isn't often a diamond expert from Paradise City becomes an unpaid welfare worker in a poor industrial town like Luceville. But Larry Carr had gone there for a purely selfish reason - to help him forget the terrible tragedy which had ruined his life and his career.

At first the dirt and dishonesty appalled him, but then, slowly, he became a part of it. He found himself enjoying the violence and the terror of life in the slums. But most of all he enjoyed being the lover of red-haired Rhea Morgan - a sensual beauty whose profession was crime. Obsessed by Rhea, Larry agreed to steal a diamond necklace for her worth 1 1/2 million dollars - but he hadn't bargained on committing murder too...