A journey to the precipice of adulthood... Olivia, almost fifteen, feels like a piece of unwanted baggage left over from her parents' broken marriage. Daddy is about to marry one of his former students, who is young enough to be his daughter; Mummy's men friends sometimes stay the night. Neither of them has room for her any more, and she feels a burden to everyone she loves. Then Nick enters her Nick, her mother's new lover, an amoral, street-wise photographer with an insolent, assessing gaze. Nick violates the sanctuary of Olivia's home by moving in with her mother, and before long he has violated Olivia as well, teaching her the meaning of desire. Hopelessly addicted to him, she comes at last to a shocking solution which will change forever her life and the lives of those who have denied her love.