Jenny Richardson believes that marriage is for ever. Her life centres around her husband Paul, her daughters - fifteen-year-old Wilma and ten-year-old Katy - and their Perthshire home. Then one day Paul destroys it all. He has fallen in love with glamorous Vera Cuthbertson, and nothing will ever be the same again.
When Jenny sets out to find a job, armed with more flattering clothes and a more attractive hair style, she finds not only a job but also admirers. But part of her still yearns for the certainties of her old life. A time will come when she will have to decide whether to go back or to strike out in an entirely new direction.