The setting for The Tragedy Queen is beautiful Pointe Claire, Québec, voted the most desirable city in Canada to live in. But Wincenty Cunningham, a.k.a. Vince Carlson, a.k.a. Vince Ybl, a.k.a. A.S. Windle, a.k.a. Ted Wilde, has just breezed into this bedroom community on his Harley-Davidson to install himself in a rented house like a fox among the chickens. A disbarred lawyer and professional fraud artist, Vince is already known to the police, but the ladies of Pointe Claire are about to meet a man quite, quite different from their husbands who return home every weekday on the 5:16 commuter train.

But Vince has begun to tire of the steady stream of middle-aged women who have provided his livelihood, tired of the ease with which they can be seduced, and tired of their suspicious children. His life feels empty. With an unexpected inheritance in hand, he's ready for a change. Old habits die hard, however, and he can't quite resist dallying with the local ladies. He also can't quite resist taking advantage of a situation that finds him alone in a rented house, while Sal the owner is away for a year. Methodically, he strips the house of all its valuables and sells them. In the process of ferreting out Sal's belongings, which she has naively stored in the attic, a flimsily padlocked area in the garage, and filing cabinets with nothing but standard key locks, he comes across her most private papers, including family photos, documents, and the journal she kept during the year of her divorce.

As Vince comes to know Sal through her journal, gradually he becomes intrigued -- and eventually, infatuated -- with her. Despite the fact that Sal has instituted legal proceedings to have him evicted for non-payment of rent, Vince is sure he'll be able to sweep her off her feet, as he has done with so many women before her. It'll be a challenge, but when Sal turns up, he's convinced he'll be able to win her over. She will be his salvation; she will be the one. When Sal finally arrives, Vince discovers that he has really gone too far this time. This Sal is some she-devil, and she is bent on revenge.