Sheila McDonald is sixty and recently retired from a job she loved. She looks forward to her husband’s imminent retirement and to the plans they’ve started to make together but John is consumed by work and dismissive of her demands.  

He, and daughter Caitlin, feel she should be content with her lot and focus on family responsibilities including caring for her grandson Milo. Sheila tries to do what’s expected but struggles to find meaning in her new life and feels emotionally distant from John.  

She takes up a short-term assignment back at work and joins a local history club but is made to feel uncomfortable and is ultimately humiliated by two men she believed valued her company and insights. She gradually opens up to her husband, and they begin to reconnect as she carves out a plan for the future – this time on her terms. 

This contemporary novel set in affluent Edinburgh explores a woman’s right to respect and her journey towards rediscovering love.