"Twenty-one-year-old Oliver is a kind, unworldly veterinary student in Los Angeles, working part-time to pay off his mother’s hospital bills. Late one night after his shift, he accidentally stumbles upon a secret gang deal. In the chaos, he rescues an unknown man gravely wounded—the feared second-in-command of the city’s criminal syndicate, Dante.
When Dante regains consciousness, his first instinct is to silence the witness. Yet Oliver’s eyes, devoid of fear and filled only with genuine concern, give him pause. In the end, Dante makes a perilous choice: to keep Oliver confined by his side. He will not kill him; instead, he will claim the boy as his exclusive possession.
Oliver is forced to move into Dante’s lavish mansion, stripped of all freedom, trapped day and night with this cold, dangerous man. At first, Dante only seeks to control and watch over Oliver, consumed by a twisted sense of ownership. But as days turn into weeks, Oliver’s gentleness, goodness, and unyielding vitality chip away slowly at the heart Dante forged from violence and darkness, like a dull blade carving through stone.
Meanwhile, amid constant fear, Oliver gradually realizes Dante was not born a monster. All softness he once held was torn apart by the world, so he built an impenetrable wall around himself. What began as forced captivity becomes the starting point for mutual salvation for them both."
