Having scored a big publishing success with the biography of a major rock star, Alan Fennemore might have expected his career as a writer to have taken off. It hasn't, and he finds himself making a living writing throwaway, unauthorised books about D-list celebrities and transient pop sensations. His current project is about Martin Byrne, a TV talent show contestant who is suddenly back in vogue. Unfortunately, Martin really is as inoffensive as his public persona suggests he is - there is simply nothing interesting to write about him.

In his increasingly desperate hunt for background information, Alan begins to realise that the public version of Byrne's family history doesn't stack up. The more he digs, the darker the landscape becomes until he's dangerously enmeshed in a much bigger story than he could ever have expected to find.