This novel contrasts youth and old age, beauty and deformity, freedom and restraint as Nell is ripped from her innocent nest and thrown into an evil world.

A young man who is a reformed gambler returns to playing big stakes poker to help a friend pay off loan sharks.

"Logan Tanner lives the exhilarating life of a professional gambler, taking risks with nerves of steel. From casinos in Macau to Monte Carlo to Milan, he's racked up a fortune and become a living legend. But all the glitz and glamour hide a dark and violent past as an extractor--a world that comes rushing back to him when the beautiful and innocent Lara Balkon enters his life. Soon Logan is drawn into the conflict between two Russian mafia bosses...