It all started with a black rose and a rich young man. And a house with a creek running through it. And then there she was, Kip Flynn, standing beside her boyfriend’s dead body and agreeing to take a large sum of money from the young man’s father to keep quiet. As if she could have done anything else, being so scared and grief-stricken and maybe pregnant.

But that’s not the end of it. You see, there’s some kind of connection between Kip and this rich developer’s son that keeps them tight in one another’s orbit. So when Kip awakens from her grief, intent on revenge, they find themselves pursuing one another with a ferocity they can barely understand, one that spirals outward, with subway accidents and arson and drainpipes and backhoe wars, to envelop roommates, two guilty fathers, a window-cleaner or two, landlords, family secrets, a Vietnamese gangster, a stand-up bass player and an activist tour guide. And concluding in the subterranean heart of Toronto itself, which, like Kip, is torn between vengefulness and growth.

Sean Dixon is a novelist, playwright, and banjo player. He’s the author of the novel The Last Days of the Lacuna Cabal; two novels for young readers, The Feathered Cloak and The Winter Drey; and several plays, including those collected in AWOL: Three Plays for Theatre SKAM.