Lloyd has a particular set of skills. He writes the small print for
prescription drugs, marital aids, and incontinence products. The clients
present him with a list of possible side effects. His job is "to recite
and minimize"--sometimes by just saying them really fast and other times
by finding the language that can render them acceptable. The results are
ingenious. The methods diabolical.
Lloyd has a habit, too. He cops smack during coffee breaks at his new
job writing copy for Christian Swingles, an online dating service for
the faithful. He finds a precarious balance between hackwork and heroin
until he encounters Nora, a mysterious and troubled young woman, a
Sylvia Plath with tattoos and implants, who asks for his help.
Lloyd falls swiftly in love, but Nora bestows her affections at a cost.
Before Lloyd clears his head from the fog of romance, he finds himself
complicit in Nora's grand scheme to horrify the world and exact revenge
on those who poison the populace in order to sell them the cure.