Young Kelly seeks adventure in the only "gay bar" in a Canadian prairie town before the predicted Apocalypse of Y2K. Kelly begins to form an identity as an honorable dyke when she meets Vivienne, an older woman with a past. As a student of journalism, Kelly is always looking for information, but she believes that some things should remain private. Vivienne's un nished relationship with Ruth, her fist female lover, complicates things, as does Kelly's resistance to hearing Vivienne's life-story. Can resentment, disapproval and lust coexist? Where does pleasure merge with pain? Is it possible to be corrupted by a dangerous lover, by sex, by intoxicating substances, or by porn? What causes a toxic mixture of everyday prejudices to escalate into murder? Kelly learns more from the regulars in the bar than she ever suspected when she was growing up on a farm. What was formerly hidden within families and in a stigmatized community of "perverts" comes bursting into public awareness as complications are resolved, and a web of political corruption is exposed in the wake of a spectacular murder trial.