When movie executive Heather Byer began to feel stuck in her professional life and daily grind, she found herself drawn to something quite different from therapy or yoga to relieve her angst. She found herself drawn to pool.

Sweet: An Eight-Ball Odyssey is the story of her experiences in this dark and seductive world-from her first fumbling attempts to learn the game to her progress and mishaps on the tables and around them. As her game and her persona change, a lasting impression is left on Byer by those she encounters-mentors and hustlers, teammates and nemeses, friends and lovers-in this fascinating, sometimes treacherous subculture. Ultimately, the humiliating losses and exhilarating wins, both in the pool bars and in her personal life, alter how she thinks of the game and herself.