Laura is content enough with her marriage, her two children and her part-time job - until an ex-lover whom she had thought was 'the one' gets in touch out of the blue. Suddenly passion and excitement are rekindled, and she realises how stagnant her life has become. But how much happiness has she a right to expect, and what of the pain she might cause to achieve it?
Unknown to Laura, many others in her Sussex village are living with their own unresolved inner dramas. None of them guesses at her crisis. Yet every decision they take has an impact on those around them. The hidden longings of a large cast of characters interweave in a gripping plot that reveals ordinary life at its richest: comic and tragic, poignant and cruel, surprising and moving.