School-teacher Frances Pilgrim's father vanished when she was five, and since then other things have been going missing too: car-keys, promotions, an endless roster of unsuitable boyfriends . . . And now here she is, thirty-bloody-nine and still losing things.
Frances needs someone to talk to. Ideally to Jackson: fellow teacher, dedicated hedonist, erstwhile best friend. Only they haven't spoken since that night last summer where they had too many glasses of Merlot (oh, large, please . . .) and things got complicated.
But now she has a much more pressing problem. Her mother Mary, whose odd behaviour Frances has long put down to eccentricity, is slowly yielding to Alzheimer's, leaving Frances with some disturbing questions about her father's disappearance, and the family history she's always believed in.
As the new school year begins, and Mary's behaviour becomes more and more erratic, Frances realises that she might just have a chance to find something for once. But will it be what she's looking for?
