Plot

Set in the northwest of London, England, four locals — Leah Hanwell, Natalie (born Keisha) Blake, Felix Cooper, and Nathan Bogle — try to make adult lives outside of Caldwell, the working-class council estate where they grew up. While Leah has not managed to venture far from her childhood location, her best friend Natalie, now a successful, self-made barrister, lives in an affluent neighbourhood in a Victorian house. Despite their friendship and history, the two women find that they are very different from each other socio-economically. Meanwhile, a chance encounter brings Felix and Nathan together. Leah is the focus of a lower-working-class life in comparison to Natalie who represents the small higher-working-class. All four characters represent a piece of the lost generation struggling to ascend economically.^[1]

Part 1 – "visitation": Social worker Leah Hanwell is contacted by Shar, a now destitute former school classmate, who claims she needs money for a cab ride to visit her mother in the emergency room. Leah later learns that Shar is a drug addict and this is a scam she regularly operates for drug money. Leah becomes obsessed with Shar and begins following her around Northwest London. After tracking Shar to her flat one day and leaving behind pamphlets for a rehabilitation center, Leah receives a threatening phone call from a man whom she believes to be Shar's boyfriend. Believing she recognizes his voice on the street one day, Leah inadvertently goads her husband, Michel, into confronting the man, who kicks their dog to death. Around the same time, Leah has a chance encounter with her former teenage crush, Nathan "Nate" Bogle, now a homeless drug addict; it occurs to Leah that Nathan may be Shar's boyfriend and the man who called her. Shortly thereafter, Leah learns of a local man's brutal murder during Notting Hill Carnival. The incidents lead her to question her trust in the community and her own life's work.

Part 2 – "guest": Former drug addict Felix Cooper wants to start a new life with his girlfriend, Grace. Formerly a successful chef, he bowed to pressure from his Rastafarian father and uncle to quit his job to go into a tourism business with them; the failure of the business precipitated Felix's decline into drug abuse and eventually rehab. He meets one last time with his drug-using ex-lover to say goodbye and purchases a heavily damaged vintage car with the intention of restoring it. On his way home, a white woman mistakes him for the companion of a pair of disruptive train passengers because all three are black. Felix inadvertently slights the men in his efforts to get them to turn down their music. As Felix departs the train, the men rob Felix in the middle of the Notting Hill Carnival. When Felix refuses to turn over a pair of diamond earrings that were a gift from Grace, one of the men impulsively stabs him to death.

Part 3 - "host": Keisha "Natalie" Blake has met every goal she ever set for herself. She graduated from a prestigious university, became a successful lawyer, married an investment banker from a rich family, and moved to one of to the most expensive parts of London to raise her two children with him. Nonetheless, Natalie feels that her life is empty and is haunted by thoughts that she isn't a complete person. She struggles to reconcile her working-class, liberal, Afro-Caribbean roots- "Keisha"- with the upwardly mobile, socially conservative "Natalie" persona she has crafted for herself and which she has come to feel increasingly trapped by. Hoping to find an escape, she arranges a series of disastrous sexual encounters online with couples via swingers sites. On the night of the Notting Hill Carnival, Natalie's husband learns of her double life and they have a disastrous argument that culminates in Natalie suffering a nervous breakdown and wandering into the carnival in her bed clothes.

Part 4 – "crossing": Wandering the streets of London during the Notting Hill Carnival in a fugue state, Natalie runs into Nathan Bogle, who offers her comfort. The two smoke marijuana together and reminisce about their divergent paths in life; Natalie looks for a reason for Nathan's downward trajectory in spite of his good grades in school and personal charisma, but Nathan sees nothing more than bad luck as responsible for his current position in life. The two pass the site of Felix's murder, which startles Natalie. Nathan makes reference to a violent acquaintance of his named Tyler; it becomes apparent that Nathan and Tyler were the men who robbed Felix, though Tyler actually committed the murder. She later accompanies Nathan to a tube station where she sees him receive stolen goods from Shar and another woman, whom Nathan implies work for him as prostitutes. Natalie wanders to a bridge where she attempts suicide, only for Nathan to stop her.

Part 5 – "visitation": Already strained by the events she's experienced and witnessed, Leah suffers a psychotic break after Michel learns she's secretly been taking birth control pills to prevent a pregnancy despite their trying to conceive. Michel calls Natalie, who remains shaken after her near suicide. Natalie arrives and recites what she realizes are a series of empty conservative talking points and declares her belief in the just world fallacy, and that the two women are successful because they are deserving while people like Nat Bogle and Felix Cooper suffer terrible fates because they are unworthy. Feeling the need to do something truly meaningful, the women each contact the police to let them know Nathan Bogle has information about Felix's murder before resettling into their lives as they existed at the start of the book.

Characters

Leah Hanwell: Her parents are from Ireland and were able to provide a stable home for Leah. Unlike her best friend Natalie, Leah has never been very ambitious and still lives in her old neighbourhood. She is content with her job, working for an organisation distributing lottery earnings to social projects and still very attracted to her husband Michel, a Frenchman with Algerian roots. But while Leah does not want her life to change, Michel wants children. Leah has been avoiding the confrontation and lies about no longer taking her birth control. Although Leah is generally at peace with the choices she has made so far and therefore should have little reason to envy Natalie, she's increasingly ill-at-ease with her successful friend's new-found wealth and status.

Felix Cooper: After struggling with drug addiction for years, Felix is about to turn his life around. He cuts ties with people from his drug-dominated past and makes plans for a career in film. His new lease on life is inspired by his new girlfriend Grace, whose optimism and can-do-spirit is contagious.

Natalie Blake: Natalie's parents are from Jamaica. They originally gave her the name Keisha, which Natalie dropped during her time at university, to better fit in with her new social circle. After graduating from a prestigious university, becoming a successful lawyer and marrying into money, Natalie is the only member of her family who is upwardly mobile. This enables her to financially support her previously convicted younger brother and her older sister's large family. Nevertheless, Natalie is regularly accused of being a "coconut" – black outside, white inside; someone who denies her origins to pander to the ruling class. Natalie feels increasingly alienated from her original community and cannot even open up to her childhood friend Leah.

Nathan Bogle: As a young boy, he showed great potential as a football player. His ambitions were foiled by his drug addiction. Now he earns his living through illegal activities, operating from a house in Leah's street.