The book starts in the 1990s, and it has two different plots.
There is Eleanor who goes to the police station to report that she is being stalked, and her stalker is Gavin Hewitson. Alex, the constable that talks to her, feels drawn to her. The book then takes us back to the past. We discover that Eleanor is in London for a man, Rufus. They met at a camp, and she decided that he was the man of her life. So she went to live with him in London. However, Rufus breaks up with her and tells her that he is still in love with his ex-girlfriend.
Eleanor finds herself alone and with nobody to lean on. She has no money for the trip back to Maine, and she can't face her mother. Thinking that she used to babysit, she contacts childminding companies, and she eventually finds work for the Davenports as a live-in nanny. They have two twin children, Barney and Jessica. Eleanor loves the children, and she gets on well with their mother, but their father makes her nevous. Gavin is the neighbour, and when one day she finds herself with the children in the park and in the middle of a storm, Gavin offers her to give her a lift and she accepts. When he leaves them at home, he asks her out, but she stalls him. After that, he calls several times even though she turns him down. Then she starts getting silent calls, presents and she sees him look at her through his window. Things come to a head when Eleanor receives a package with a thong and a bullet, and she gets very scared.
Alex, the police officer, gives Gavin a warning even though he denies having stalked Eleanor. Then Alex confesses to his boss that he is drawn to Eleanor and he was thinking of asking her out.
The second polot involves Christie and Paul. Christie goes to a carnival with her sister, Alice, and a tarot reader tells her silly things like marrying a dangerous stranger. What she insists is that she should not trust anybody. That affects Christie.
Christie is engaged to Paul, and they marry. Six months after the wedding she gets pregnant, but Paul is not happy as this comes as a surprise, but he keeps his feelings a secret. Things don't go well between them, especially during the pregnancy and when she has their daughter, Daisy. It seems that Christie has postnatal depression, and Paul tries to be a good father and husband. Then one weekend he goes away for work. There is a convention, and when he starts to realize taht he loves his daughter and wants to be a good father and husband, the boss brings alcohol, and he drinks too much.
Christie has also discovered during his absence that she loves her daughter and she is the most important thing in her life. When Paul confesses that he went off the rails, and Christie misunderstands that he was unfaithful.
I imagine that these two plot lines will converge at some point. I wonder what is the common ground.
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