During, one long, shining summer of school trips, games in the playground, amber limbs in the long grass and sudden rain, the secretary puzzles over why her assistant, Laura, is increasingly wan and withdrawn. Bit by bit she pieces together the real, disturbing story of the two sisters' past before she turns, invevitably and painfully, to her own. Suzannah Dunn gives us stories of the suburbs which are as brittle as they are funny. Her observations snip away at home life until, little by little, we discover the secret truths women find so difficult to tell.