It is the summer of 1969, and Frances is writing a report on garden architecture in the attic of a dilapidated country house. But she is distracted. The glamorous, hedonistic Peter and Cara are staying in the rooms below, and Frances is surprised to discover that they are keen to spend time with her. Before long they are spending every day together- eating lavish dinners, drinking bottle after bottle of wine, and smoking cigarettes till the ash piles up on the crumbling furniture. But as the summer rolls lazily on, it becomes clear that not everything is right between Cara and Peter. The stories that Cara tells don't quite add up - and as Frances becomes increasingly entangled in their lives, the boundaries between truth and lies, right and wrong, begin to blur. Amid the decadence of that summer, a small crime brings on a bigger one- a crime so terrible that it will brand all their lives forever.