'But then-he is such a presence, such an other person, a thing she has honestly never been good at coping with, the sheer massiveness of a whole other human. If he comes to visit then everything will be different, all this, this chilled bright space in her head.'

Practice shows us just one day. One day in which Annabel, sitting in a small university room, attempts to write an essay about Shakespeare. She follows a meticulously controlled routine, but one that is repeatedly thrown off course. By family and friends who demand her attention and time; by thoughts of her much older boyfriend and his impending visit; by wild sexual fantasies and stories of her own invented characters; and by darker crises, obliquely glimpsed, but capable of derailing Annabel's carefully-laid plans.