Dara Flood always said that the most interesting thing about her life happened before she was born.
Thirteen days before she came into the world, her father walked up the road to buy a packet of cigarettes and never came back.
Now Dara lives an uncomplicated life. She goes to Melvin's for pizza on a Wednesday night with her friends. She has salsa class with her sister Angel on a Friday. And Saturday nights are usually reserved for her boyfriend. People might say that Dara's life is predictable. But it's safe, which is exactly the way she likes it.
As for Mr Flood? Maybe Dara thinks about him from time to time. But not very often. She doesn't see the point.
Then Angel gets sick and suddenly everything changes.
Now Dara urgently needs to find her father so she hires the scruffily handsome, failed-policeman-turned-private-investigator Stanley Flinter to help her.
As Dara and Stanley set out in search of Mr Flood, Dara's carefully ordered life begins to fall apart. But as she learns some truths about Mr Flood, and herself, she discovers that to let life in, sometimes you just have to let go...