Living with her partner, Tony, his parents and their precocious teenage son, Alberta Granger considers she belongs to the perfect modern extended family. With her catering business booming and her daughter embarking on a glittering career in London, Bertie reckons she can cope with the mild irritants of her difficult stepson's visits and her father's ongoing disapproval of Tony.

But some truly shocking news is about to rock Bertie's world to its foundations. As a torrent of tabloid headlines engulfs the family in a very public scandal, Bertie is forced to face the fact that some of her nearest and dearest, those closest family members she thought she knew so well, have been keeping secrets, leading mysterious double lives she knew nothing about.

As revelation follows revelation, old wounds re-open and former grudges re-surface. Is Bertie's family unit tight enough to survive? Is her relationship with Tony solid enough to withstand the battering? And, when temptation arises in the form of a handsome stranger, is Bertie herself strong enough to resist?