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Tony Peterson is the head of software development for the UK arm of a major US corporation. He is in his late middle-age and beset with problems. He has been passed over for promotion, faces the likelihood of enforced early retirement, and is going through a messy divorce. The financial settlement with his ex-wife Jane is proving very difficult.
But nothing ever keeps the ebullient Tony down for long! Tony goes at everything like a bull at a gate, a whirlwind of energy. He solves his work problems, gets the better of his slimy boss, and manipulates Jane into a financial agreement.
But it is a desperate journey, and in the process Tony's self-image begins to fall apart. Tony is nowhere near as perfect as he thinks he is.
Initially we only see Tony's side of the divorce, but doubts begin to accrue and Jane does not turn out to be the archetypal bitch Tony would have her to be.
We also discover that Tony has a girlfriend, Sheena, who he sees from time to time. With his typical self-centred attitude, he wants to keep it on a fun level, whereas she is thinking of a more permanent arangement and comes complete with kids from a previous marriage.
He is also a car fanatic. He dotes on his expensive BMW, and has fond memories of his first real car, a red Mini Cooper he used to flash around Hampstead in the Sixties. But we soon realise Tony's driving skills are not nearly as good as he believes. Especially when he has had a drink.
In Tony's eyes, a couple of pints at lunch time is well within his capabilities and no reason not to drive. He drives far too fast, keeping an eye out for speed traps and police cars, and is convinced every incident is due to someone else. No one at work would suspect Tony of being a drunk, but after work the real drinking starts. Every night Tony goes to bed drunk, and every morning Tony gets up with a hangover and the remnants of a nightmare in his mind.
As we follow Tony's progress in solving his current problems, we discover more. Ancient memories fill Tony's mind. His long lost youth, the fun years, when he shared a flat in Hampstead with his friend Dave. They both had girlfriends, and life was a permanent foursome. It was always Penny and Dave, and Tony and Jane. Parties at a friend's pad, then a Sunday morning walk on the Heath, ending up with a ploughmans at the Spaniards Inn. Friday night dashes out to an A5 roadhouse where they played Trad Jazz. Tony and Jane in Tony's Mini Cooper, and Penny and Dave in Penny's brand-new MGB sportscar which she had been given by her parents for her twenty-first. The fun was going to go on and on. Two working class lads with their eyes on the 'white heat of the technological revolution' that was going to take them to the top of the heap, with two very-presentable middleclass birds in tow.
But the memories are not all good. Something happened that Tony had put out of his mind years ago, but now resurfaces. The real key to Tony's problems and the collapse of the marriage.
While going out with Jane, Tony, then in his mid-twenties, had also been having a casual affair with Sally, an eighteen-year old from the Midlands who is visiting her elder sister Penny in London. But Sally is far too young and inexperienced, and she reads too much into the situation.
Sally doesn't realize it, but she can never compete with what Jane meant to Tony. Tony was in love with Jane's lifestyle, not Jane. The big house in the elegant road. The sound made by expensive cars as their wheels crunched the gravel of the carriage drive. The panache of the upper middle-class. One day, Tony told himself, he too would have all that, and Jane fitted the image to a tee. Sally was more friendly, lively, intelligent, for most people the ideal partner for journeying through life, but she never stood a chance with the image that came with Jane.
The crunch comes when Tony tries to end the relationship. He summons up his courage to try to explain. He has just received the offer of a new job which involves moving away from London, and on the strength of it he and Jane are planning to get married. Tony even convinces himself that Sally would probably be pleased to hear about his good fortune. After all, weren't they really just good friends?
But Sally is heartbroken. She doesn't understand why Tony is doing it. She is certain that neither Tony or Jane love each other, and had always imagined the story-book ending when true love would prevail.
Her face streaming with tears, Sally commandeers her sister's sports car and starts driving home to the Midlands. But it is the middle of the night, Sally has only just learned how to drive, and she is going far too fast. Tony tries to catch her up, but instead comes across the wreckage of Sally's car. It is clear that Sally is dead.
So starts the lie which will dominate Tony's life. Tony drives on and doesn't stop. He can't admit to knowing anything about the accident. How can he tell anybody that it was his behaviour that caused Sally's death?
Other complications follow. Sally's death is the catalyst which destroys the relationship between Sally's sister, Penny, and Tony's friend, Dave. With Sally's death, Penny is now the only child her parents have left. They persuade Penny to return to the Midlands, where further pressure is brought to bear. It is not long before Dave receives a letter that Penny will not be coming back. Dave never suspects that Tony was involved with Sally or had anything to do with her death, and Tony has to live with that for the rest of his life.
But unlike the trusting Dave, Jane is no fool. She has a pretty good idea of what happened that night, although she keeps it to herself. Jane can be just as manipulative as Tony, and she sees marriage to go-getting Tony in his high-tech career as a way out of her dreary middle-class existence. Tony may see the glitter, but Jane knows the reality. Her parents are typical of the period, with pretensions to a pre-war upper-middle-class lifestyle, but without the money to keep it up, and with little to leave for their descendants. To Jane, product of the egalitarian Sixties, her parents live in a dying world where the chief interest is bridge, and the favourite topic of conversation "the scandalous cost of servants these days". Real dullsville...
At the end of the narrative Tony has solved his problems and come to terms with his past. But there is a twist to the tale. Tony's friend and mentor in the corporation has made it to Vice President, and Tony is offered a vastly superior position in the US. Tony is over the moon, and we know that with his inexhaustable energy he will make a success of it. The word's are hardly out of his mentor's mouth, before Tony's mind has gone into overdrive working out how to maximise the situation for his benefit. The terms and conditions. The salary. The relocation expenses. And of course, the car. Something big and suitably top executive... Tony has to have his symbols.
To Tony it's a clean break and a new start. But we know Tony isn't going to change. Typically he has misread the situation with his current girlfriend, Sheena, and only sees the relationship from his own point of view. He decides that he will have to tell Sheena that the relationship is over now that he is leaving the UK. He never considers that Sheena might quite legitimately feel bitter about their relationship being jettisoned for the sake of his job in the States.
It's a re-run of what happened with Sally. Tony even convinces himself that Sheena would probably be pleased for him when she hears of his promotion, When it comes to relationships, Tony will make the same mistakes all over again.
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