PRIVATE COLLECTION

The chauffeur stood still for a moment, then moved his broad hand up towards the button on his tight uniform jacket. His voice was low and hypnotic. ''I can give you anything you want, Francesca,'' he whispered. ''And I think I know what you want.'' Behind an overgrown garden by the sea, a mysterious crumbling mansion harbours a tantalising secret. This fortress of grandeur is home to fading society-beauty Alicia Moffat, her inscrutable chauffeur and a remarkable collection of priceless erotica. Francesca Leeman, a young writer, is commissioned to catalogue this very private collection. She finds her new acquaintances cultured, enigmatic -- and incredibly perverse. But in an atmosphere of perpetual stimulation, Francesca finds a strange security in their games of voyeurism, and an intensity of pleasure that she had not before experienced.