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Two middle-aged women, Jenn and Rubicon, grew up in the same small town in Illinois. Each arrives in London via different routes and resumes their "frenemy" relationship with each other. Rubicon, called "Rubi,” has experienced minor celebrity but has been forgotten by the cable world. Jenn experienced an unplanned, early pregnancy, a forced marriage, a subsequent miscarriage, and the care of her now-deceased husband after an automobile accident that paralyzed him and traumatized her, primarily because of the loss of a developing fetus. Additionally, Jenn proclaims deep religious convictions that Rubi doesn't share.
After a party in London that is filled with drunken sexual banter, Jenn marries Mark, a widower of a murdered woman, Annabelle, who had "trapped" him into marriage years before because she was pregnant. Their child is now a teenager named Simon, to whom Jenn wants to be a mother. Rubi discovers that she has fibroid tumors and asks Mark, who is an M.D., to go with her to her surgery. Even more social complications develop for the main characters as their tale progresses..
On the surface, this story has a fairly strong scent of a soap opera, but it is also reminiscent of scenes from the darker writings of James Thurber. However, on a deeper level, one can recognize various themes, such as how one can't escape oneself or one's past. Certain situations repeat until the characters are willing to learn from them. Other themes question what friendship and love really are or explore how commitment is portrayed and betrayed. Emotions and relationships in the story are presented as both toxic and healing, destructive and resolving, and unwelcome and welcome (or inevitable), often simultaneously. Maturity and self-awareness seem to be the routes to resolution. However, they are virtues from which some of the characters are unable to benefit. Those in search of a multi-layered tale need look no further than this one.