"Back Flip" is set in Toronto, in 1967. The title refers to a painting by a young artist, Eddie O'Hara. When it is selected for a prestigious exhibition organized by a visiting English curator, it becomes the focus of a power struggle between Eddie and his dealer, the passionate and paranoid Bruno Gonzaga. After the painting mysteriously disappears, O'Hara makes a copy and complications quickly ensue, raising questions of authenticity and ownership.

Much of the action derives from the competing delusions and deceits of the group of artists, dealers, critics and collectors who surround O'Hara and Gonzaga. A social comedy of errors and a study of wishful thinking, "Back Flip" ends with a flash-forward to the year 2000 that brings readers up to date with its characters' subsequent lives and, in some cases, deaths.