A childhood game that magnetized sisters Cassandra and Julia serves as potent metaphor for their uneasy adult relationship. Cassandra, now an Oxford don lives a life of seclusion in contrast to blithe spirit Julia, a prize-winning novelist lost in the distractions of the media circus. Old and bitter rivalries resurface when Simon, a former beau who had unwisely made a fleeting guest appearance in their dark familial drama many years earlier, suddenly crops up on the television. They seek him out again, like hunting rapturs. (Kirkus UK)