In one of his darkest roles, richard e. Grant plays an ageing professor obsessed with his star student, polly fraser. Polly is trapped in a dead end job working for intrusive professor julius greengrass grant. Her relationship with boyfriend chapman adam fenton is falling apart, and jealous sister jimi antonia bernath rarely leaves her side. When polly has the chance to escape, her nearest and dearest have other ideas.alone in her flat, polly struggles to keep her grip on reality. Mysterious sounds surround her, voices in the darkness, whispers of deceit. Polly knows she's not cuckoo, but why won't the noises go away? She turns to the one person she can trust her boss. But julius has a dark secret of his own. He wants polly, and he'll do anything to get her.