Christopher and Alexandra's passion for one another raises eyebrows and invites envy. This beautiful, blinkered couple do the unthinkable and run away from home, abandoning their two teenage children. This is a story of obsessive love and a testimony to the bonds that tie us to our past, regardless of distance or time travelled.

Alfred White, a London park-keeper, rules his home with a mixture of ferocity and tenderness that has estranged his three children. When Alfred collapses on duty one day, they rush to be with him. His daughter's partner, Elroy, a black social-worker, is brought face to face with Alfred's younger son Dirk, who hates and fears all black people.

Maggie Gee tells her story of becoming an adult during the sexual revolution of the 1960s and living through dramatic changes in attitudes towards race, class and gender in the second half of the 20th century.