Flora Lee, Artist in Residence at London Zoo, is being stalked by a beautiful black panther. Is the beast real? Or an hallucination? Or is she losing her mind? Max, Flora's consultant at the eye hospital, tells her the cat is a symptom of Charles Bonnet Syndrome, a condition where her brain misinterprets images from a damaged retina.

Max is as fascinated with Flora's cat-shaped visions as he is by the artist herself (he already owns some of her work) and introduces Flora to his coincidentally apt hobby – hunting ABCs (Anomalous Big Cats, such as the well-known Beast of Bodmin ). He invites Flora to help him track a mystery creature across the Cornish moors along with his friends from CatFlap, an eccentric group of 'cryptozoologists' dedicated to the pursuit of out of place animals. The expedition fails to find any big cats, but is brought to an abrupt end by a savage panther-like attack on Max's wife.

At the zoo, Flora discovers a half-wild, street-living teenage girl, Lou, hiding in her studio. Lou implores Flora to help her become a painter. There are many extraordinary things about Lou, but most astonishingly she is stone blind. When she paints it is by smell and by touch, and she achieves stunningly visceral works.

At first, Flora is merely intrigued – empathising with Lou because of her own eyesight problems – but soon she is overwhelmed, infatuated to the point where she offers to share with Lou the exhibition at the climax of her residency. As the show's opening approaches, however, Lou's behaviour is increasingly menacing and her relationship to Flora's 'imaginary' black panther becomes uncanny and dangerous.

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