This book is set in London and Southern France at the end of the 20th century. There are two central characters, Judith and Annabel. Judith is a young artist who meets and falls in love with Claude who is doing his doctorate on the painter Vincent Van Gogh and the causes of his mental disintegration. Judith's mother is an alcoholic. Her father is a property developer. Annabel is a financial advisor to the NHS. Her job is deficit reduction within the NHS. These two diverse characters are drawn into a complex relationship, which is not of their making, and for much of the story they are unaware of the threads that bind them. These threads slowly tighten and strengthen until they are inexorably bound together. We are asked to explore the question of how much one human being owes to another, and whether or not some people deserve to be murdered. Can murder ever be justified?