Deborah is a history postgraduate student, living with three flatmates, one of whom is her long-term boyfriend James. The relationship becomes increasingly fractious as Deborah's finals draw near. Her fitful sleep is punctuated by inexplicable bouts of sleepwalking; James seems less than sympathetic. After seeing a psychologist, Deborah realises that the cause of her unease is the fact that James is having an affair. After a blazing row, he storms out and, the following morning, Deborah wakes up next to a blood-spattered claw hammer. What has she done? Could she have attacked someone in her sleep? Is she really going insane? Or has someone taken advantage of her affliction?

Edward Buttimore is a single man in his 40s living with his mother, Rose. One day, in a moment of a road rage he kills a man on isolated country road. He attends the funeral for the victim and preteds befront of everyone that he is an old friend of his. Soon he befriends his wife, the widow Samantha Johnstone, who leans on him for support when she discovers that her late husband was leading a double life.