Z is a 23-year-old Chinese language student who has come to London to learn English When the book begins she can barely ask for a cup of tea, but when language comes, so does love As she gets to know British culture she also falls for an older English man who lives a resolutely bachelor life in Hackney It's a million miles away from the small Chinese town she comes from, where her parents want nothing more for her than that she should follow them into the shoe business Z learns about sex, humour, companionship and passion, but she also learns the painful truth that language is also a barrier and the more you know about it, the less you understand