Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep has seen just about everything on his beat in Bangkok's crime-riddled District 8. But the terrifying snuff movie he's been sent anonymously is something else: the person who dies is Damrong, the beautiful woman he once loved and whom he still dreams about.

And there's more: slayings turn the ensuing investigation into a murder inquiry, and Sonchai into an obsessed and haunted man.

Sonchai's inquiries follow a dizzying route from his own apartment, where he sleeps next to his pregnant wife while his fantasies deliver him up to Damrong; to the backstreets of Phnom Penh, where street gangs are only the most visible threats; to the gilded rooms of the most exclusive men's club in Bangkok, whose members will do anything to explore their darkest fantasies ...