Hack wrote this when he was hanging around the small theater across the street from the Shakey’s where he works as a janitor and he became obsessed with one of the actresses who performed there. In the book, the rising starlet gets hooked up with mobsters who come to her dressing room after the show and her life goes into a rapid descent until she winds up as the night janitor at the Shakey’s across the street from the theater that she used to perform at.