The main character, Lainey, is married to Tom, a successful writer whose books are adapted for TV. She's his PA. When she met him he was married, already a father (14 years older than her). Her Italian mother Alessandra died a year before - she came to England when Lainey was a month old. No Italian relatives had ever been in touch. Her father lives with them. He's senile. They have a dog who'll soon need putting down. They have a daughter Tierey (15, with advanced friends, one of whom, Sky, likes Max) and a son Sav. She collects her step-son Max, 21, from the police station (drunk shop-lifting). They argue, he saying that she destroyed his family. It seems more of an info-dump than an argument. Surely they've discussed this issue before.
She's booked a villa in Italy for the family and friends so she can do some family-tree research.
Stacey has a new man in her life, Martin, having divorced Derek. She's coming to Italy. She seems too peripheral character. Tom's agent Nadia, 49, is with Guy, a much younger man.
Tom reveals that he has another daughter, Julia, who's 16. Her mother Kirsten, a TV presenter, has cancer and wants Tom with her. Tom wants to tell Lainey that he's only known about Julia for a couple of month but is repeatedly (unconvincingly) interrupted. Also, it's odd that he doesn't say that Julia has Downe's syndrome. These info-delays seem merely for the sake of generatingly fake tension.
Tierey has secret lover, much older than her who wanted her to read 50 Shades of Grey before having sex for the first time on her 16th birthday. It emerges that her lover is Guy. Why are we kept in the dark about this? He photographs her compromisingly.
Most of the characters go to Italy. Sky and Max are shag-buddies. They meet Marco (whose English wife left a year before for a man, then changed her mind), whose old relatives help with the local history. He consults the record office. It seems that Lainey was the result of a rape - maybe with a priest. Or maybe she was the result of incest. Grandparents are alive - one of them in a dementia home - but Lainey doesn't want to meet them. Why not?
When Tierey tells Max about Tom, he's livid and flies to England to tell Nadia about it. Double standards? Tierey flies back to her father and they return to Italy together.
Lainey meets Kirsten and Julia who move in. At the end there's a funeral. Again, we're not initially told a detail (that it's Peter's funeral). Lainey seems unaffected. Kirsten's health is worse. Lainey's prepared to look after Julia.
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