When Janine and Dougie fell in love they thought it would be forever. Fifteen years later their relationship is well and truly over, their daughter Stevie their one remaining connection. Stevie is on the cusp of adulthood. At sixteen, she's not quite a child, but not quite grown up: a dangerous age.

The Harrisons are a large and close-knit family. But with the grandchildren fast becoming adults and elderly Pamela struggling to adapt to widowhood and the emptiness of Ashley House, the four children of the middle generation find themselves equally lost in a changing world. This is a multi-generational story of love, lies and family ties.

Everyone needs a holiday — but who knows where it will lead? Sophie and Andrew are looking for relief from the daily grind — if not each other — so when a friend puts them in touch with William and Beth, newlyweds looking to swap houses for the summer, it seems a solution of sorts. They find themselves in a stylish Connecticut home, a stone's throw from New York, while William and Beth take over their lived-in family house in South London, ideal for spending time with William's teenage sons. The weeks away work an unexpected magic for Sophie, who begins to find a sense of happiness... but Beth has no such luck and, no longer the centre of William's world, grows increasingly miserable. And so the two marriages — one crushed by the weight of years, one shiny and new — slide into reverse. But who can foreseen the dramatic consequences of their lives, and hearts, intertwining? This innocent holiday might just prove devastating...