Feisty twenty-eight-year-old, Kerstin McDonald, works for her lifelong friend, Michael Dunn, in his coffee shop. As childhood friends, they are both habituated, and unable to move on to a loving sexual relationship. However, there are stifled feelings of desire, especially from Michael. Kerstin also studies at Edinburgh University. Eight years earlier she studied at St Andrews. But left after a failed relationship with a professor. This led to the birth of her daughter Chloe. Chloe lives with Kerstin's sister, Rebecca, in Glasgow. A university interview leads to a hostile relationship with Professor Ian Howard. A chance meeting between Ian, Kerstin and Michael, takes place in an Aberdeen care home. Ian is visiting his father Charlie, and Kerstin is visiting her grandmother Olivia. On the way home, Kerstin and Michael crash their car
on a forest road. Ian picks them up and they spend a drunken night in a local hotel. This leads to the start of a romantic relationship for Kerstin and Ian.