John Matthews is a happily married college lecturer, living in Bristol with his successful wife, Penny. The couple, now in their early thirties, are trying for a baby. All this is seemingly inexplicably threatened when John is stopped short by seeing a familiar haircut on the street. This insignificant encounter triggers a decline over a single week into depression and near insanity as memories and nightmares, all connected to a past repressed relationship, overwhelm him and threaten his otherwise stable life. In this compelling work of contemporary literary fiction, Stewart weaves dream and reality, false and true memory into a challenging psychological drama of one ordinary man's failure to cope with the secrets of his past as they force their way into the present.