Esm e Myers, once an impassioned woman, is living a life where her only excitement is the laundry and the children. Her relationship with her husband leaves a lot to be desired, but she is content to focus on providing emotional stability and security for her two young children. For her husband, Philip, she is no more than a housekeeper, childminder and cleaner, easy to betray but not so easy to fool . . . When Esm e becomes convinced that Philip is having an affair, she secretly plans to leave him and set up a new home with the children. Finally making the break, she feels she can look forward to a bright and fulfilling future. Then Philip disappears without trace, leaving only his car standing on a clifftop. Though no body is found, the police deduce he has committed suicide. Esm e, however, thinks otherwise. What begins as a carefully planned escape from a maudlin and tedious relationship descends into something much darker as layer by layer Esm e strips back the last ten years of her life with a man it turns out she never really knew.