Claudia Knight is the wife of Roger. When Roger is sent to prison for his criminal activities, Claudia changes her name from her married name, Claudia Barron, back to her maiden name Claudia Knight. Claudia moves from their home in London to a cottage in the countryside.
Claudia is in her 50s and she has two grown children—Jerome and Lila. For the first time in her life, Claudia is learning how to do things on her own and to depend on herself. She gets a job picking mushrooms at first because she is turned down for the cook job at a local primary school. When the cook they hire doesn't work out, they ask Claudia to fill in on a temporary to permanent basis.
Claudia also meets a man and starts a love affair for the first time since she left her husband. At the start of the novel, Claudia wrecks her car in an accident with a farm tractor. It is the owner of the tractor with whom Claudia eventually starts a relationship, Anthony Brewer. Even though Claudia is in her 50s, she is really experiencing coming of age rites of passage while living in the country. She's learning how to trust again and how to make friends in the face of adversity, such as having a husband who is a criminal and in prison.
