The distorted world of Nick Banning reflects his abortive attempts to be normal although recognizing, but never admitting, his uncontrolled violence. He finds the girl he loves, Sherry, in Arizona; gets a job with a very mentally displaced couple; and, with lethal anger catching up with him, is on the lam. The fight between his almost rational self and his anti-social demands borrows from the desert background for a sultry brooding viciousness. Torrid tale-telling.