The Harrisons have gathered for Christmas at their big country house. It's a tight safe world of festivity and tradition - but this year, reality is encroaching. Time is catching up with Pamela and John. And troubles are brewing in the lives of their children.
Cassie, the cosseted youngest, is in the throes of a secret affaire with a married man while awkward Elizabeth struggles with a faltering second marriage. Peter, who will inherit Ashley House, is beginning to meet resistance to the idea from his career-orientated wife. Only carefree Charlie and his serene wife seem truly content, having nothing to worry about except their adolescent twin girls and the simpler teething troubles of their toddler.
Change, when it arrives, strikes in het form of a tragedy of the most unforseeable and devastating kind. The family, so apparently secure, begins to unravel. Secrets past en present are exposed, laying bare the fragility of human happiness, and the myriad faces of love in an imperfect world.
534 blz - paperback