Aurora is an American studying at University in Berlin.

She idolises Anastasia, a tall, black-haired, leather-clad, philosophy studying girl.

Things get spicy for Aurora when Anastasia invites her to a Bondage Ball, a vast, tumultuous frenzy of leather-clad masters and slaves groping each other to loud techno music - and had even, in my more libertine moments, imagined that I might summon up the courage to go.

Aurora's POV:

I looked at the ad. It was a small black-and-white picture of a woman on hands and knees, wearing only the manacles that joined her wrists and ankles, a metal collar, and a leash, her lips pressed against a whip being held above her face by an unseen master. I think my whole body must have quivered when I saw that picture. It was not the first time I had wondered what it would be like to be that woman - naked, chained, and completely at the mercy of a firm master. Or mistress. Here I was looking at the image of my fantasy.