Ruth is old, manic depressive, banged up in a bin in South London (again) and tortured by an agonizing secret. Matthew, her eldest son, is a new dad working at a deadly dull TV show in New York.

At the insistence of her psychiatrist, Ruth summons Matthew to London where she reveals that in 1958, when unmarried mothers were legally labelled "moral Imbeciles", she gave up a baby girl for adoption. The guilt has tortured her ever since.

Through his diary, we accompany Matthew on a wild goose chase, battling bureaucracies, half-truths and his belligerent boss, as he tries to track down his half-sister before Ruth succumbs to terminal cancer. Ruth's journal, often abandoned and returned to, takes us on her journey through the smog of grey trousered London in the 50's, and beyond, while madness, alcoholism, and the deterioration of her marriage become the cost of keeping her secret safe.

Racing against time on a desperate mission to make his mother's last days a little less wretched, Matthew learns more about Ruth and himself than he bargained for, while the whole truth is elusive, blurred and buried between the lines.

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