Last year, fashion student Miranda Oliver fell in love with rising young sculptor Joel Ranger, mad, bad and good in bed; this year she is having his child. But now she lives with journalist Adam Cavendish, loving, dependable - and under sexual siege from his half-sister, the schoolgirl actress, Belle, who always gets her way. Last year, Miranda's artist mother, Chloe, fell in love with Luke Cavendish, charismatic teacher and grand romantic, married to Dinah, her best friend. Unable to leave her adoring husband, the French engineer Alain, and their dissimilar twins, Rufus and Tilda, Chloe has ended the affair. But Luke won't take no for an answer - and now she has realised that she too is carrying a child. Last year's unfinished business threatens to shatter the lives of both families, and their search for solutions involves them in emotional balancing acts which lead to tragedy as well as happiness.