Jean Lux, academic wife and guilty mother, is waiting for excitement. Meanwhile intelligent elder daughter, Eve's loathing for her only sister verges on the murderous. Raymond Snow is the rival of Jean's husband, who begins to show interest in Eve. Meanwhile, Jean's best friend, Helena, has a confession that may alter everyone's life forever.

Claudia Rubin is in her heyday. Wife, mother, rabbi and sometime moral voice of the nation, everyone wants to be with her at her older son's glorious February wedding. Until Leo becomes a bolter and the heyday of the Rubin family begins to unravel.

Anna Raine is desperate: to escape Somerset, and above all, to find a model of adulthood on whom to base her future self. When Stella, her mother's younger sister, offers her Bloomsbury flat, Anna feels sure that an idiosyncratic but stylish wardrobe, interesting friends, several handsome suitors and some form of stardom will shortly follow.

Claudia Rubin is in her heyday. Wife, mother, rabbi and sometime moral voice of the nation, everyone wants to be with her at her older son's glorious February wedding. Until Leo becomes a bolter and the heyday of the Rubin family begins to unravel