Iris's family—her ex-husband with his new wife and baby; her son, and her best friend's daughter—gather to pack up their holiday house. They are there for one last time, one last weekend, and one last party—but in the course of this weekend, their connections will be affirmed, and their frailties and secrets revealed—to the reader at least, if not to each other. The Hope Fault is a novel about extended family: about steps and exes and fairy godmothers; about parents and partners who are missing, and the people who replace them.