Dustin Conrad can't seem to get his life together. Constantly broke and in varying states of sobriety, he's alienated nearly everyone in his life, including the girl who recently dumped him. Penniless, abandoned and alone, Dustin chooses to end his life.
Upon killing himself, Dustin's soul is delivered to the Terminus, a giant machine located somewhere between what's left of Heaven and Hell. Before his soul can be judged, it is "saved" by Lunoch, a once-great god that history has forgotten.
Lunoch offers Dustin a wondrous gift. He will return the young man to his life in the moment before he committed suicide. He will fix everything that was broken. As long as Dustin does a few things for Him...make three people fall in love with him, and then mercilessly break their hearts.
Upon his return, his few remaining friends and family are both alarmed and pleased at his transformation. But deals with devils never go as planned and they all soon find their lives unravelling. Dustin's selfish and shortsighted actions bring chaos and destruction into the lives of everyone he meets while he remains more stable than ever.
Through unique story design and text formatting, we see Dustin at different stages in his life, almost at the same time. Set in the eclectic 5 Points area of East Nashville where more than just streets collide, this "concrete novel" approach conveys the collisons taking place all around the characters: future and past, predator and prey, gay and straight, rich and poor. HEARTLESS delves into the pits of human suffering and soars into the heights of simple joy and no one emerges unscathed.