For 10 years Sally has lived a dull suburban life with David. But on the night he asks her to marry him, Sally has a crisis and embarks on a wild affair with Emma, a seductive, charismatic, boho actress, singer, musician, poet and author.

When Tom and Ellen are together, things seem to work. It's only in the spaces outside the relationship - the intrusions of real life, and the deadly collaboration of parents, siblings, friends and exes - that the flailing attempts to make good first impressions, arrange first dates and hold a relationship together, seem to unravel.

Matthew decides to leave his job and train to become a male midwife on a busy maternity ward. He is soon joined by best friend and former policeman friend Ian who joins as the hospital security guard.

In an old caravan parked in front of his crumbling estate lives Pompidou - a tubby, pompous, penniless, eccentric, yet lovable aristocrat. He is an elderly oddball who has fallen on hard times.