Kindness can be found living just around the corner.

London, March 2020. Wendy's husband Richard is one of the early Covid casualties, and as the world hunkers down against the pandemic, Wendy and her two kids - home from university - lock down into their grief and remembrance.

Except Wendy has this gnawing sensation, a tightness in her chest every time she thinks of Richard. He could be harsh, critical, belittling in front of others. But he did his best - didn't he? He looked after them, even if he did make all the decisions and laugh at her small ambitions. Even if he controlled everything in Wendy's so-called life.

As lockdown drags on with its do-gooder neighbours with their cake-baking and competitive Clapping for Carers, Wendy makes a disturbing discovery on Richard's old phone. Messages from a woman she doesn't know, a woman who clearly has a close relationship with her late husband. Enraged but liberated by the betrayal, Wendy starts to reclaim her life.

Until she runs into Zana. Zana, who appears to be watching her house. Zana, with her small child in tow. Zana, and her inexplicable connection to Richard...

When Wendy decides to help Zana during a time when the world has turned upside down, the two slowly build a relationship based on their mutual recognition. And when Zana introduces Wendy to her friends at the local homeless mother and child hostel, she discovers a different, more hopeful, kind of family bubble.

Because if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.

(P) 2021 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd