SPOILERS!!!
It has taken me a bit to get into the swing of the book because the first chapters were all about the business dealings of Octavia and Tom, and I found those parts too tedious and difficult in the sense I have little knowledge about the business world. Now the novel has become more interesting as it deals about the personal lives of the characters.
Octavia and Tom have always boasted of having a good marriage. Yet, Octavia discovers that he is having an affair. The first clue is a lacy handkerchief that Octavia finds in the pile of clean clothes, and the handkerchief doesn't belong to her or the housekeeper. Having a bee in her bonnet, she decides to check the hotel where Tom stayed in Leamington Spa the week before. She is told that Tom didn't stay in that hotel, so she keeps ringing other hotels in the city, and she discovers that Tom stayed in one of them with someone who passed herself off as Mrs Fleming. Octavia is devastated, but she plucks up her courage to pretend she is fine as she is to be in the stall Tom usually hires at Ascott for them and his clients, and that also includes her father. It is obvious that Octavia is not well, but she keeps saying that she is tired. After Ascot, she declines to go to dinner with Tom and his clients, and she goes home.
At home Octavia calls her best friend Louise and tells her about Tom. Louise has been her best friend since school. Louise also has her share of problems. After a stint as a model, she married Sandy, ex-army, and they had a son, Deacon. Then they had a baby daughter, but she died. It was cot death, and that sent Louise to depression. Now she is better, but recently she has discovered that her mother, Anna, who Octavia loves dearly, has cancer, and it is terminal.
When Octavia tells Louise about Tom's unfaithfulness, she asks her if she will confront him, and she says that she will, but she doesn't. Actually, days pass and she still keeps quiet, but it is obvious to everybody, even Tom, that something is the matter with Octavia. It seems that she is to confront her for once and all. I have a theory. My bid is that the woman Tom is having an affair with is Louise. There is something that Tom hinted once about Louise not being such a good friend, and that makes me suspect.
There are other subplots in the novel as well. Marianne is Felix's mistress. They have been together for years, but they have agreed that they won't marry. It seems that now Marianne is starting to have doubts about her relationship with Felix when she meets Nico Cadogan, a friend of Felix's and Tom's current client. She finds him terribly attractive, and he also finds her pleasant.
Marianne is divorced and has her children. Her eldest is studying in America where his father lives, and her daughters live with her. Zoe is eighteen, and she is in a point of her life when she has no idea what to do next. She is not a good student, and now she is having a relationship with Ian, who is a plumber/decorator. Zoe wanted to try her luck at modelling and send some photographs to take part in a competition, but to her dismay the person the agency liked was her young sister, Romilly, who also appeared in the photograph. Even though Zoe is very protective of Romilly and doesn't want her to get into that world, Romilly is excited and Marianne thinks she can try.
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