A writer suffering a block decides to watch a young woman as a role model for his novel, but finds more than he bargained for.

Zed, a young British rapper, is about to start his first world tour, when a crippling illness strikes him down, forcing him to move back in with his family. He tries to find himself between an international music career and Pakistani family traditions.

A memoir of the lives of a family growing up on a post World War I British estate headed up by a strong disciplinarian, her daughter, her inventor husband, their ten year old son and his older sister. Through the household comes a number of suitors hoping to impress the young woman, including an aviator. When the elder woman's son shows up at the estate with his French fiancé, everything gets thrown into turmoil. The young boy takes a sudden interest in her sexual allure and his father is disturbed by his own non-Victorian feelings.