Two old friends - Cline Linley and Vernon Halliday - meet at the funeral of gorgeous, witty Molly Lane. Both men had been Mollys lovers years before their dazzling success; Clive is Britains most eminent modern composer and Vernon is the editor of the respected broadsheet, The Judge. In the weeks that follow, Clive and Vernons lives become bound together in ways neither could have imagined. Two dubious moral decisions and a pact made in extremis lead them both to the heart of Amsterdam.