Charlotte Garnell-Scheide

Susan and Mark move to a seaside town to buy an old house and open an inn. They came to look at one house, but Susan is inexplicably drawn to another. The house is high on a cliff overlooking a lonely beach. Something eerie is going on. A scary black dog appears. One strange guest stays at the inn. Susan finds letters in the attic written long ago by a wife who was terrified of something.

Three young boys pool their money and pay V, a kindhearted prostitute, to strip for them. Afterward, she drives them home to the suburbs -- but then her car breaks down. It's just as well, though, because a mobster named Waltzer is after her, and V realizes the suburbs are the perfect place to hide. But things get a lot more complicated when V falls in love with Tom, a single father who is unaware of her real profession.