Franklin's tired of women, tired of trouble. He's young, he's six-feet-four and he likes to pump iron. But his ex-wife's riding him for money to keep their two children, and there's no security in construction work. Not in New York anyway, and especially not if you're black. All Franklin really wants is to stay together, stay in work and, most of all, stay out of love.

And Zora. She's a music teacher, fresh from Ohio, looking for that one big break as a singer-songwriter. She's going to get an apartment, get fit, and get her first songs down on a demo tape. The last thing she wants is to disappear into another relationship, and wind up with another broken heart.

But when Franklin sees Zora and Zora sees Franklin, none of it means a damn. Everything - their pasts, their independence, their plans - evaporates in the electric charge of one of the most passionate, turbulent and memorable affairs in contemporary fiction...