An intimate portrait of a uniquely independent woman who finds herself newly divorced during the Depression years and struggles to carve out a new life for herself and her family. The story explores Mildred's unreasonable devotion to her insatiable daughter Veda, as well as the complex relationship she shares with the indolent men in her life, including her polo-playing lover Monty Beragon and ex-husband Bert Pierce.

Hannibal is on the run in Europe, accompanied by his psychiatrist, Bedelia Du Maurier, sporting a new identity, but servicing the same insatiable appetite. As the lives of Will and Jack converge toward Hannibal again, each with their own motivations to catch him once and for all, their deadly dance turns in startling and unexpected ways.