Greater London, December 2016-December 2018

London is the novel's main present-time setting, the center of the British political and justice systems and longtime home to all of the main characters. The sprawling, ancient city against which the narratives unfold can be thought of as another important character in its contrasts and complexity, a backdrop on which Vaughan can depict scenes illustrating her main ideas about British social inequity and injustice, crimes against women and personal transformation. For Sophie and James, who live in the fashionable North Kensington section, London was the destination predetermined by their breeding and education as children of the Southern English upper class, and both arrived there after Oxford to work in the private sector before reuniting at the dawn of James's political career. For Kate and Ali, transplanted Northerners, London offered similar professional arrival in their respective fields, as Kate's first-class honors earned her a ticket...