Rose Starling, abused wife, is living on benefits with her three children on an estate in a small town near Newcastle. Trying to keep one step ahead of the tallyman she dances in the shadows of various illegal dealings and works in a topless bar to make ends meet. To add to her problems, bits of her ex-husband keep turning up in different places and DI Savage seems bent on linking the evidence to her. Desperate to extricate herself she finds her dead husbands diary and events spiral out of control. Set against a backdrop of Northern council estate life, this fast-paced, humorous novel exemplifies the problems caused by poverty, piles and unruly children.