Charlotte Wood delivers a short, sharp shock of a novel that takes us into the heart of a family. When their father is critically injured, foreign correspondent Mandy and her siblings return home. In the intensive care unit the children sit, trapped between their bewildered mother and one another; between old wounds and forgiveness, struggling to connect with their emotions, their past and each other. But as they wait and watch over their father, theres someone else watching too: a young wardsman, Tony, whos been waiting for Mandy to come home. As he insinuates himself into the family, the pressure, and the threat, intensify and build to a climax of devastating force.