Stephen Lewis is, by his own admission, an accidental author of children's books. One Saturday, on a routine visit to the supermarket, during a momentary distraction, he loses his only daughter, Kate, aged three. The only purpose in his life becomes sitting as a member of a government committee on childcare, an activity he does with little to no interest. Otherwise he spends his days lying on the sofa drinking scotch and watching mindless TV programmes and the Olympic games. His wife, Julie, frustrated by her husband’s seemingly futile quest to find Kate, has moved away to the countryside and become a recluse.
Stephen occasionally visits his close friend, Charles Darke, who was in charge of publishing Stephen's first novel and is now a junior Minister in the Cabinet, and a rumoured future candidate for Prime Minister. Darke's wife, Thelma, is a quantum physicist who engages Stephen with her outlandish theories on time and space.
At the behest of Thelma, who believes Stephen's marriage with Julie is salvageable, he makes an effort to reconnect with Julie by visiting her. Although he has never visited the town, he feels strangely familiar with the place - especially a pub. There Stephen experiences a strange event that he cannot explain: he sees his parents as a young couple in a pub, before they were married, an event that is later confirmed to have happened by his parents. Though Julie and Stephen temporarily reconnect during his visit and sleep together, Kate's absence has become too great a divider between the two and they part believing it impossible to overcome her loss.
In the meantime, Charles Darke and his wife leave their life in London for a place in the countryside. During Stephen’s visit, Charles expressed his motive for his retreat as a search for an inner child that’s been forbidden and denied. A few years later, Charles, who according to Thelma suffered from bipolar disorder, commits suicide after being unable to reconcile his political ambitions and drive with his desire for recreating his missed childhood.
The book ends with Stephen finding out Julie had got pregnant during his visit through their emotional tryst, and her giving birth.
