Medic Katarina d'Arnal moves to the slums to work in a free clinic and ends up drawing the job of inoculating Shareem. The first Shareem who shows up is the Calder, a level three, muffled from head to foot, refusing to bare even an inch of skin. He's used to an elderly medic who jabs him and lets him go, not the pretty, young highborn woman who wants to do everything by the book.

Calder hides himself because, unlike the rest of the Shareemthe handsome, arrogant, a-holesCalder is scarred all over, the result of a plasma fire years ago. He's learned that women crave to be with him, as hideous as he is, and he's created a world where they can indulge in their darkest fantasies with the Beast. He give them an exotic experience with a capital E.

But this woman, Katarina, looks at Calder the man, and wants to know all about him. Calder decides to show her what he is when she's tricked into visiting his lairbut Katarina keeps insisting on touching his burned face with her gentle fingers, trying to find the man behind the tormented Beast.

Calder knows if he lets her in to what he truly is, it will be the end of him . . .