Alice falling

Alice Lynch is a young woman who appears to have everything - health, wealth, brains and beauty - but she loathes her husband so much she talks of killing him.

Sexually abused, it transpires, as a teenager by the local priest, 18-year-old Alice saw marriage to the older, glamorous Paddy as an escape route. 12 years on, their lives, and the lives of their small group of friends have all, in their own way, begun to fracture.

Athletic Mick Delaney's marriage to the eccentric Nora runs mad, and Alice has learnt the hard way that what Paddy saw in her was a vulnerable victim he could dominate.

When Alice discovers, though, that he is not only having an affair but beating his mistress up, the worm turns.