If you’re Brad Armstrong, whose Underworld garnered nine AVN Awards, how do you top a sexual odyssey that encompasses eight elaborately designed sex scenes and a storyline that crosses into the afterlife? It doesn’t get much bigger than that. So for his most ambitious title this year, Armstrong went smaller, opting for verisimilitude over visual splendor and subtlety over showmanship.

In Aftermath, Armstrong combines impressive narrative breadth with the deepest reservoirs of passion to create a story that engages the mind, emotions and senses equally.

Briefly, the storyline follows Danny, played by Tyler Nixon, whose father died when he was just 3. When his mother passes on his father’s car, Danny finds some clues to a secret life that he’s compelled to uncover. There’s a twist, and it’s complex enough to keep many viewers guessing.

This being adult entertainment, however, the meat is in the sexual motion, and it’s superior fare all around. As Danny’s father, Ryan Driller does two sex scenes with the two women he left behind: a tender dream sequence with his widow (played by Brandi Love) and a flashback encounter with his co-worker and lover (Jessica Drake), the woman whose photo and love letters Danny finds hidden in the trunk of the car.

But before Danny heads off to New York City to find this mystery woman, he christens his new car by having back-seat sex with his cute girlfriend (Chloe Amour). Afterward he tells her about the letters and his plan to track the mystery woman down. “There’s always been something missing, you know. I want to learn everything about my dad,” he says. She thinks it’s a mistake to open a door to the past, but with his curiosity piqued, he heads for the temptations of the Big Apple.

After a bus ride with voyeuristic thrills provided by two exhibitionistic passengers (Bonnie Rotten and Xander Corvus), Danny begins his search at an address he found in the cache of letters. The woman inside the apartment won’t talk so he slides a photo under the door, which opens to reveal Nina (Jessica Drake).

She confirms that she knew Danny’s father. “After all these years, it’s just so haunting. I mean, not that I ever tried to forget him, but I spent years trying to push him to the back of my mind and now here you are. Right in front of me. I don’t even know what to say,” Nina says. “What do you want to know?”

“Anything. Everything,” Danny replies.

After a little too much wine, the two begin making out, but when they wake up the next morning, Nina tells Danny he has to leave.

“I don’t know why you’re acting like this, and I’m really sorry if I did something wrong,” he says.

Nina responds, “It’s me who did something wrong.”

It’s took late, however. Her guilt and his curiosity soon create an intense sexual bond that is consummated in three scenes. And it’s the subtle variations between each of these couplings that gives Aftermath its emotional depth and sexual punch.

Those who like their action more extreme will be relieved to know there’s a cherry on top at the end: a signature Wicked orgy at a swinger club where Drake takes her young lover. In addition to Asa Akira in a display case wearing a ball gag, the performers include Kaylani Lei, Vicki Chase, Sarah Jessie, Aubrey Addams, Erik Everhard, Eric Masterson, Mr. Pete and Armstrong. Within the flow of changing partners, both Drake and Akira juggle double penetrations.