On New York’s Lower East Side, Julian Blackwood’s gallery is plastered with overdue notices, and the three hundred thousand dollars in gambling debt left behind by his mother cuts at him like a slow knife. His ex-boyfriend, FBI agent Marcus, arrives with a manila envelope and a commission: to paint a portrait of Adrian Castellan, a mysterious wealthy patron. At their first meeting, Adrian takes off his shirt, revealing a back covered in gunshot scars, and demands that not a single one be left off the canvas. Turpentine, rain, pigment. A probing game begins, with the body as its battlefield. What Julian does not know is that the pot of irises on his studio windowsill is quietly betraying a secret from seven years ago.
