The Bedloe family is the ideal, apple-pie household, appearing to lead charmed lives. That is until the youngest, 18-year-old Ian, pricks the bubble of their determined optimism. Brother Danny drives into a wall, sister-in-law Lucy falls apart and the Bedloe parents age before his eyes.

It is Ian, consumed by guilt and now committed to the off-beat Church of the Second Chance, who leaves college to shoulder the burden of children, pets, parents and his embarrassingly pervasive religion. And 20 years on he hasn't made a bad job of it - until fate deals the Bedloes another blow.