When Jenny Thursley, a 40-year old linguistics lecturer, returns to Europe for a conference in Amsterdam, she finds herself pitched back into the presence of a life she had fled: a once-inspirational mentor now dying, a former lover again within reach, the flickerings of new desire. Over little more than 24 hours, Jenny must write a keynote conference speech, face up to her own mortality and to the consequences of the bad choices she has made - while finding the nerve to make new choices that might be no better.