2 timelines. 3 PoVs - Adam's, Kathleen's and Billy's.
London 2015. Billy gets home, blood on his clothes. Kathleen is wandering, mid-40s. She was childhood friends with Adam and Joselyn. She's come to London for Joselyn's funeral. She fell from a high building. There are several celebs at the event. Kathleen meets Ross, Joselyn's partner. He asks them for help with sorting through Joseline's stuff. She'd become unpopular. Joselyn and Kathleen hadn't been in touch for years, but recently Kathleen had received a phone call from Jocelyn which made Kathleen suspicious of Ross. Adam's there with his husband Jason - they've adopted a child. Kathleen lies about her current situation. She has a therapist. 10 minutes before she died, Jos received a phone-call from a Liverpool phone-box.
Liverpool 1985. Kathleen lives with her dad's mum. He's in and out of prison ("on the rigs") and her mother went to Australia with another man. Kathleen and Adam have been friends since nursery school. Adam's mother runs a sweet shop. She's teased for having a big nose (she's called Conky, short for Concorde). He's teased for being arty/effeminate. Joselyn becomes part of their little gang. She goes to private school on the Wirral. She's black. Her single mother tells her she needs to work twice as hard as others to defeat the prejudice. Her mother has an answerphone. Joselyn doesn't even have a phone. The 2 girls compete for Adam's attention. He's written a nativity musical in 3 weeks. They're in their mid-teens. She likes Mark, a boy a year older who she thought was out of her league. He talks to her. She realises that he comes from a troubled home. His father hits him. Jos is having sex with him. Kathleen is furious. Adam is furious too. He has to explain to Kathleen why - he's gay! Kathleen's dad returns. Joseline's family disappears, returning 9 months later with a baby. Her mother says it's hers. Adam thinks it's Joseline's.
London 2015. Billy (who we now know is Josephine's son) sees Adam and Kathleen arrive at the flat. Ross is going away for a week with new girlfriend Vinty.
London 1995. From Adam's PoV we learn he and Kathleen went London. They met Josephine by chance. She's flunked exams and was doing office work. She keeps to the story that she never got pregnant. He writes a play set during the Irish Troubles based on their experiences. He fears they'll be upset but they're proud. He becomes a drag queen.
Josephine does glamour photography then escort work. She gets a rich boyfriend then catches him having sex with Kathleen. He and Adam work together. Mark has become a politics lecturer appearing on TV. Billy arranges a meeting with Mark and Josephine. Josephine says thay she's his mother but his father's a forgotten boy at a party. Billy's having therapy. He's a church-goer. He fears that he takes out his angst on women. Kathleen goes into an alcoholism clinic. Josephine is the Queen of Mean on chat-shows - Ross often writes her Tweets. Kathleen recovers. She's staffing a helpline when Josephine phones to say a friend's father had raped her at 14. This causes Kathleen to return to drink.
It's been left unclear whether someone pushed Josephine. At the end we learn that Billy, Kathleen and Adam were all at the road outside the flat when she fell.
Adam's sections are too long. The Paris section isn't needed.
