'I hate you. When I'm a mother, I'm never going to be like you...' These words come back to haunt Ros, years later. As her marriage of twenty years collapses and her beloved twin sons prepare to flee the nest, Ros's world is tilting on its axis. It doesn't help that her dead mother seems to have taken up residence in her head, reminding her of things she once said. As Ros tries to adapt to sharing custody of the family dog and life without her husband and boys in the house, she embarks on a new regime to stay sane: yoga, herbal remedies, internet dating. But as Ros is trying to find herself, the arrival of a memoir her mother wrote begins to reveal a woman she never knew, taking her on a journey into her mother's past that will change forever her idea of who she is.