Charity Walton seems to have everything she could want: a husband, four children, a lovely house in London, and a successful career as a sociologist. Then she meets Mark Carleton, the incoming Head of the Sociology Department where she works: clever, handsome, and American. Having devoted herself for years to her family, Charity finds herself surrendering to Carleton's charismatic pull. Their sex is frequent, passionate, sometimes violent, their love consuming and volatile. Soon Charity, having abandoned all she has known, realizes that love is often far from true. This is a fluent, bitter story of love and sexual politics.