When Ellie Pascoe finds herself under threat, the men in her life assume its because shes married to a cop. But while they trawl after shoals of red herrings, Ellie is blasted off course with a motley crew of women on a voyage of discovery whose perils make Scylla and Charybdis look like a pair of Barbie dolls. Irish arms, Colombian drugs, and men who will stop at nothing create a tidal wave which threatens to sweep her away. She heads out of town in search of haven...
but instead finds herself at the very edge of the storm, in a remote clifftop house undermined by the sea. Fat Andy eventually smells a Security Service rat and comes steaming to the rescue, but for once its too little, too late.
Ellie's on her own (apart from her Middle England friend, Daphne; an octogenarian aid worker and her vapid secretary; a gorgeous South American money launderer; an ancient crone; and a female cop who gets up her nose) and must reach deep down into her reserves to find the strength to survive.