The opening scenes reveal the Robuck nfamily as essentially dysfunctional with Rebecca on sick leave due to depression. The teenagers are unhappy and unhelpful and the youngest child, while in no way mistreated, is emotionally neglected. Simon has retreated from his family problems into an affair with a beautiful Eurasian girl who works in the same insurance office with him.
The plot unfolds as the main characters battle to make sense of their lives with subplots involving Simon's sister Hanah and her disastrous association with her lover Fergal and brother Robert's failing marriage.
Flashbacks reveal what might be some of the causes of Rebecca's clinical depression after the ealier years of happy married life. She fights her depression with the help of psychiatrist and eventually emerges from his sessions to resume normal life although not without ramifications caused by Simon dumping Orissa his office lover.
The novel explores human relationships at various levels including the trauma when the youngest child, Angus, goes missing. Sex features to a significant extent as in everyday life but story confirms that it is only one of the aspects that make up everyday life.