The year is 2004. Legendary rock band the Upper Hand hasn’t played together in fourteen years, and it seems certain that they never will again. The quintet disbanded in 1990 in the wake of the shocking, heroin-induced abandonment of the group by their famed guitarist Jeff Britton, who staggered offstage in the middle of a concert and disappeared for months. When Jeff’s old bandmates miraculously orchestrate an end to the long, bitter estrangement between Jeff and his childhood friend and fellow superstar guitarist Mark Donahue, the path seems clear for a triumphant return to glory for the Upper Hand. When the beautiful but troublesome Denise Blake, the woman blamed for Jeff’s heroin addiction and the resulting demise of the band, suddenly reappears in Jeff’s life, he is soon drawn back into the self-destructive lifestyle that left him, and the band, in ruins long ago. Jeff’s reconnection with Denise infuriates his bandmates, and leads to confrontation, violent clashes…and murder.