Animated by her fear of settling comfortably into the only kind of life she has seen, a young woman decides to pull up stakes and cast her fortunes to the wind. She intends to use the power of her sexuality to summon a handsome prince who will carry her off into the sunset. She succeeds but soon finds out that was the easy part.

For every ounce of venomous contempt in which she held the circumstances of her childhood, she finds a pound of shocking wonder at the miracles of a wider world. She must ultimately learn that people--herself included--are more than their simplest appearances suggest and cope with the most terrifying consequence of sex: love.

A novel in which the heroine punches a shark, sets a man on fire, and swims across the English Channel.

Yumiko Itsumoto wants it all. An accomplished artist and feared attorney, she gets what she wants, all else be damned. Now she wants love, even if it means charting a new course for her life, but changing course can be dangerous. In mere moments, she tumbles from the dizzying pinnacle of success into a bottomless abyss of murder and treachery. Yumiko will not live happily ever after--not this time--but can she at least find a way to stay alive?

A novel that includes a car chase, a tentacle monster, and "from the top rope."