A weekend in the country goes awry in Fay Weldon’s wickedly entertaining novel of lust, avarice, and murder. Nineteen-year-old Elsa is poor in material goods, but rich in looks. Her employer and lover, forty-four-year-old Victor, used to be a tax accountant. Now he’s an antique dealer who gave up his family for Elsa, and together they live in a room behind his shop. For her birthday, Victor is treating Elsa to a weekend in the country, courtesy of his rich friends, Hamish and his wheelchair-bound wife, Gemma, who mistakes Elsa for Victor’s daughter. Not the most propitious way to start the weekend. Things go from bad to worse when Gemma starts treating Elsa like a home wrecker and Victor proposes a partner swap. Elsa is about to discover the darker side of “happily ever after” in this story about love, life, and fairy tales that never come true.