Madeleine wants revenge, to be remembered, to be loved. But don't we all? The cast-off wife and chief persecutor of Jarvis, and architect, she harbors such rage that not even death can shut her up.

Jarvis has a clean new life and a clean new wife, Lily - as unlike grubby Madeleine as she can be - and a nice new baby, Jonathan.

Now the furniture is polished, there is orange juice for breakfast, and sex is fun. Margot, the doctor's wife, Jarvis's part-time secretary once, many years ago, on a night quite forgotten by Jarvis, made love to him on a pile of damp coats. Loved by her husband Philip - in his way - and by her children, Margot is complacent in her life until Madeleine turns it upside down...