At thirty-five Jane realises something rather disturbing. She thought she had her life perfectly balanced: working from home as a a freelance translator allows her to keep her financial independence spend time with her daughter and escape office politics. But somehow instead of combining a rewarding career with a satisfying mother-daughter relationship she's become an all-purpose dogsbody rushing from crisis to crisis and combining missing deadlines with repairing the dishwasher.
Rupert is also leading the life he planned: a job in the city glamorous girlfriend plenty of money. But he's beginning to have doubts about the dull-but-sensible route he's chosen - and to realise it's just possible he wants more out of life. So when he and Jane meet each escaping their day-to-day life with a stolen afternoon in the peace of the cinema they both start to wonder whether it's really enough to settle for the next best thing ...