Patrick Brodie is on the way up. He's a chancer, but unlike his drunkard father, he wants to make sure that anything he accrues stays close by. He also knows exactly how far he's prepared to go to get what he wants. Before long, Patrick has taken out the old guard and become a legend in his own lifetime.

Nine years on from her stepfather's death, Ismay and her sister, Heather, still live in the same house in Clapham. It has been divided into two self-contained flats. Their mother lives upstairs with her sister, Pamela. The bathroom where their stepfather drowned has disappeared.