Christy Naylor meets and falls for the mysterious and cool, Mick Fleet, on her 21st birthday.This is not the first life changing event to take place on her birthday as her mother, Jessica, had died on that day four years earlier.Jessica had married below her station when she fell for factory manager, Frank.Christy is the middle child from the marriage with an older sister, Maisie, and a younger brother, Danny. Their parents relationship starts to faulter as Jessica begins to show signs of age and becomes jealous of her daughters, especially Christy who has much in common with her mother. When Jessica has an affair it looks like this will cause the demise of the marriage but it is her diagnosis and ultimate death from cancer that achieves this.Once his wife dies and Frank is made redundant he has a wild idea of setting up a fish farm. With both siblings escaping it is left to Christy to support her father. She is now consumed in relationships with two men - Mick and her father and it is the relationship with Mick that begins to falter as the result of his secrecy and strange behaviour. She is on the cusp of ending the relationship when events take over with Mick's arrest and subsequent court case.This story flits from incidents in Christy's past to the court case, when she becomes the narrator.With the announcement of the verdict you are left to wonder if Christy will follow through her plan to break up with Mick or will she feel duty bound to maintain the relationship.
