The novel follows four women who have been friends since their university days studying economics. They’re in their forties, each successful in demanding careers, and each dealing with different pressures in life. The story begins when Stacey Grant, a senior partner at a top private equity firm in London, asks for flexible working arrangements so she can care for her mother, who has dementia. Instead of accommodating her, her employer immediately fires her.
Stacey suddenly loses not just her job, but much of her sense of identity and stability. She has no children, but has been tightly bound up in her work. Her husband’s career continues to move forward, adding to Stacey’s feelings of being left behind.
When Stacey becomes unemployed, the group tries to rally around her. Gaby is in a position to offer her a job, but there are complications: the job Gaby could offer was instead given (or promised) to a woman married to Melissa’s ex. Furthermore, the headhunting role that led to that decision involved Beth’s partner – and Beth and Gaby had not been open about these connections. Secrets, miscommunication, unspoken resentments start to fray the threads of their friendships.
As the plot unfolds, the novels digs into how the friendships among the four women are tested. The betrayals are not huge melodramatic ones but more of the kind that grow quietly out of omission, assumption, embarrassment, and fear. The question becomes: how much can they lean on each other, and how much is each expected to carry alone?

By the end, each woman is forced to reconsider what "success" means to her, whether in career, in family or in friendship. The relationships shift. Some wounds heal; some truths are acknowledged. And Stacey, especially, must choose whether to try to return to the world she knew or to forge a new path.