'My father is dead. I simply can't tell you how happy this makes me.' Lucas Cage can now lay claim to the only part of his father's enormous legacy that he ever craved - The Works - the disused old printing house hard by the Thames. Lucas invites special people to share it with him: 'the family', as he comes to call them. Jamie Dear is one of those who grasps the opportunity to escape his wife and a small and nasty flat to be close to Lucas. Jamie emerges as a catalyst linking the lives of all the other disparate souls, amid the fraility, lust and dependency, while the calm and omniscient spirit of Lucas hovers above them all.