A brilliantly observed story of crises and reconciliations within families and stepfamilies and the conflict between Millennials and their Baby Boomer parents. Funny, dark, yet limned with hope, Tim Lott returns to a family saga—and social commentary—that began with the award-winning White City Blue, continuing with When We Were Rich. It is a story for everyone trying to make sense of a sharply polarised world where the political has become personal and the personal has become a minefield.

Brighton, December 2019: a teenage girl is on an early morning run along the seafront. In her mind she is running away from something she hates, towards something she fears.

China’s home is with her mother, Veronica, her pompous stepfather, Silas, and his dysfunctional son, Mason. Her father, Frankie, is in London, but they have little contact, his entrenched views a provocation to her socially conscious ideals, his Brexit-supporting girlfriend a jealous rival.

Exhausted by family tensions, when China leaves Brighton, her godfather Nodge, Frankie’s best friend, and his husband, Owen, are her first port of call. But they, too, are beset by domestic conflict. Which leaves only her father to takes her in.

They argue, they spar, the fault lines between them grow wider—and then coronavirus strikes.