Esmée Myers, once an impassioned woman, is living a life where her only excitement is the laundry and the children. Her relationship with her husband leaves a lot to be desired, but she is content to focus on providing emotional stability and security for her two young children.

For her husband, Philip, she is no more than a housekeeper, childminder and cleaner, easy to betray but not so easy to fool...

When Esmée becomes convinced that Philip is having an affair, she secretly plans to leave him and set up a new home with the children. Finally making the break, she feels she can look forward to a bright and fulfilling future.

Then Philip disappears without trace, leaving only his car standing on a clifftop. Though nobody is found, the police deduce he has committed suicide. Esmée, however, thinks otherwise.

What begins as a carefully planned escape from a maudlin and tedious relationship descends into something much darker as layer by layer Esmée strips back the last ten years of her life with a man it turns out she never really knew.