'Sweetheart, you look like a trainspotter,' says Alex, with a kiss on each cheek for Derek. 'That anorak has to go. You haven't done anything rash have you? Like taking up team sport?'

Derek shakes his head. 'It's just been a hell of a week.'

'Darling, it's only Wednesday.'

And Derek's week is about to get much, much worse. He shares a house with his teenage on, still speaks to his ex-wife and enjoys a successful career. But Derek is a man with a secret, and when a large manilla envelope is developed to his home, it looks as though his past is about to catch up with him.

Against a background of spiraling mayhem at work, adolescent crisis at home, ambiguous sexual tension and blackmail, how can he possibly survive?