1976, London - Eddie writes for the BBC. He thinks he should have an exciting lifestyle. He has a wife, Diane, breast-feeding their second kid.
1982, Wimbledon - Clara has 14 and 12 year-old daughters and 5 year-old Mark. They had Mark hoping another baby would help their relationship. Her husband, Tim, is a boring banker. When a mother, she worked in the BBC but had an affair so she stopped.
2005, USA - Dean, living in the Chicago, is ambitious and single. He gets a phone from the UK saying that his father, Eddie, has less than a week to live. He doesn't intend to see him, but his nosey PA plans his visit.
2005, London, Jo (first person) is 35. She's single, desperate, works in a Bridal firm, writes a monthly column about dating (she compares modern dating rituals to the first day of January sales), and has an older sister Lisa who has 3 kids. 5 years ago she broke off an engagement with Martin. He's invited her to his wedding in the States. She wakes at 6am beside gorgeous Jeff, an agent, in a smart apartment, dreaming about her future life. But Jeff's a married estate agent and it's a show home that they have to get out of fast. She thinks she's a fun slag. Later than day she's sacked. She visits her mother Clara for support. Her parents have an enduring, romantic marriage.
There's an unconvincing chapter or two from Eddie's death-bed - first-person PoV. He's sent a letter.
Dean wants to know why his father left his family. He left for a particular woman who then ditched him. Dean immediately hates the woman. He learns he has 2 half-sisters. Eddie learns he's a grandfather.
Clara's now 56. Tim came out as gay after their 3rd child. She's put up with it, but a letter from Eddie makes her realise what she's sacrificed. She leaves him, visiting Eddie for an afternoon.
Jo decides at the last minute to go to Martin's Chicago wedding, thinking she can talk him out of it. She's bouncily excited about being put in club class. She can't stop talking to her neighbour (Dean!), telling him about her plans, and her theories about love. He rejects her, though she wasn't trying to be flirty. There's a big difference between her 1st-person interior voice (using words like "chastised") and how she often talks. He mentions his father. He leaves her at the airport, then (for reasons that are unclear) goes back for her. He leaves her again. She goes early to the wedding venue and is about to confront Martin when Dean turns up. Dean is cynical about love but thinks that Jo shouldn't spoil the wedding.
Lisa phones Jo to tell her that their mother has run off and their father is gay. Jo feels she's lost her past. But she seems to recover quickly, sleeping with Dean, who feels it's not like another one-night-stand. He tells her about his years in care homes. While these 2 strangers are helping each other to understand themselves, falling in love, the old-flames Clara and Eddie (still very coherent) are soul-searching too.
Clara phones Jo. Jo realises that Clara's old flame is the very woman that Dean hates. Jo leaves for the UK without a word.
Dean, in search of Jo, visits Clara without realising who she is. She tells him the connection and begs apology for Jo's sake. He leaves to see Jo. He never arrives.
Years later Jo is in a park with 2 year-old Dean. Another mother (Zoe, big Dean's sister, we later learn) has a kid called Dean. Dean died in an accident on the way to Jo. Jo didn't know. Zoe assures Jo that it was true love. Jo says that Dean changed her life.
The characters' shifts of emotion and their diction aren't convincing to me. And I struggle with phrases like "The words pitt-pattered around the room like summer rain".
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