London, the week before Christmas, 2007 Over seven days, we follow the lives of seven major characters a hedge fund manager trying to bring off the biggest trade of his career a professional footballer recently arrived from Poland a young lawyer with little work and too much time to speculate a student who has been led astray by Islamist theory a hack book-reviewer a schoolboy hooked on skunk and reality TV and, a Tube train driver whose Circle Line train joins these and countless other lives together in a daily loop The novel pieces together the complex patterns and crossings of modern urban life Greed, the dehumanising effects of the electronic age and the fragmentation of society are some of the themes dealt with in this book