Darren durant returns to vancouver in 1988 after living in tehran for three years and coping with the chaos of the iran-iraq war, including nightly missile attacks. he is eager to establish himself as a painter and find a reliable mate after an agonizing separation from his beloved wife, erica, and going to iran. even the sacrifice to abandon his artistic life and work in erica's software company as a computer technician had not saved their marriage. bizarre events obstruct darren's efforts to heal the scars of the war and his failures in marriage and artistic career. in particular, a seemingly haunting canvas he had painted in 1985 at the shores of the caspian sea keeps wreaking intricate emotional situations for him and others, especially a married persian woman who follows him to vancouver with fantastic dreams. in spite of his intriguing romances, darren grapples with the dilemma of committing to someone without getting emotionally hurt again versus the chance of ending up lonely and loony like his father. all along, his lovers' rivalry to monopolize him, mixed with plots by friends and foes for baffling reasons, further complicates his efforts to settle down.