"When Echo's father gets swept away by a freak current off the Los Angeles coast, she enters a state of paralysis. The failed young actress seeks solace in the best way she knows: by losing herself in the lives of others. This time it's with her new neighbour, a dominatrix named Orly who works out of her suburban home, and who introduces Echo to a whole new world of desire. But Orly's fifty-something houseboy won't quite let Echo slip into sweet oblivion? Set among the bright colours of L.A., Permission is a kind of love story about three people sick with dreams and expectations who turn to the erotic for comfort and cure. As they stumble through the landscape of desire, they ask themselves: how do I want to be loved?"-- Provided by publisher.