On the eve of her forty-second birthday, Esme's husband announces he's leaving her for a twenty-something sound bath practitioner. Desperate to avoid becoming her mother (who left her marriage in tatters and abandoned Esme as a child), she throws herself into her work, but when she meets new office temp Callum, Esme finds herself in the middle of what appears to be a second sexual awakening.

Inexplicably drawn to Callum and the potential of someone eleven years her junior, Callum and Esme embark on a secret affair that gives Esme back the joy she was missing in her staid, joyless marriage. The two grow closer, but Esme knows that she can never be more than a secret, physical connection - she's too old, too career-driven, she's approaching the end of fertility. What could a young, handsome aspiring actor want with her, anyway?

But when Esme is forced to choose between what society deems acceptable and her feelings for Callum, will she follow her heart, or her head?

A sharp, sexy, funny love story about ageing, leaving your baggage behind, and the power of dating like a man.  Explores topics such as female ageing, gender roles in the workplace and in relationships, marriage break-ups and the male gaze.