One ordinary morning, Laurie's husband Mark vanishes, leaving behind his phone and wallet. For five weeks, she tells no one, carrying on her job as a cleaner at the local university, visiting her difficult, dementia suffering father and holing up in her tower block flat with a bottle to hand. When she finally reports Mark as missing, the police are suspicious. Why did she take so long? Wasn't she worried? It turns out there are many more lacunae in Laurie's account of events. At the time, she couldn't explain much of her behaviour herself. But as she looks back on the ensuing wreckage the friendships broken, the wild accusations she made, the one night stand she starts to see more clearly what lay behind it. And if it's not too late, she might repair the damage and, most of all, forgive herself.