Dean is 36 and recently diagnosed as HIV positive. He has come home to tell his mother and his older brother Milo.

Fear chokes the free-wheeling underbelly of San Francisco's punk scene as a killer stalks the night to feed an unspeakable appetite. A writer probes the gruesome murders and the story hits close to home, as the web of death devours neighbors, friends, and lovers.

People are dying mysteriously and gruesomely, and nobody has a clue what the cause is. Only health worker Mike Brady has a possible solution, but his theory of killer slugs is laughed at by the authorities. Only when the body count begins to rise and a slug expert from England begins snooping around does it begin to look like Mike had the right idea after all.