The story opened with a florist’s delivery to Nina Swann’s seaside villa on the day of a somber family gathering, then moved back to the immediate aftermath of chef Paddy Swann’s death: Ash and Nina mourned through a brittle, wine-fueled wake where Ash recounted how a drunk stranger, Joe Kritner, had pushed Paddy beneath a train. Months later, a condolence card and a returned Zippo lighter from “Nick Radcliffe” reintroduced a man who claimed to have known Paddy in the 1990s; Ash researched him and found a glossy Mayfair bar, while Nina, exhausted by grief and running Paddy’s restaurants, alternated between engagement and distance as Ash’s own life stalled at home.

Interleaved chapters revealed, four years earlier, a husband narrating calculated deceptions of his wife: inventing a financial advisor, siphoning pension “top-ups,” staging discount trips as lavish gifts, maintaining a secret phone, and juggling an affair with a woman named Martha. This narrator also stalked women for thrills, lied about work trips, and kept a second device in a doctor’s bag; his name surfaced across timelines as Jonathan Truscott, later also calling himself Justin Warshaw, Nick Radcliffe, and Alistair Grey.

A year after Paddy’s death, Nina began seeing Nick. Ash’s discomfort sharpened as Nick embedded himself in their home, parrying questions about a gold ring, a baby’s pacifier clip, and a dog poo bag. Clues multiplied: the Zippo did not match Paddy’s habits; Nick minimized his connection to Paddy and denied knowing Paddy’s ex Jane; and he pitched risky business schemes like buying a derelict seaside pavilion. Ash partnered with Jane Trevally to investigate, uncovering that “Nick” resembled a vanished life coach, Justin Warshaw, and that he had once presented as married with two girls. Through interviews with a former client, Sarah May, and a landlady in Cambridge, Ash learned of Laura Drummond, who confirmed grooming, debts, disappearances, and a pattern of compartmentalized lies.

In a parallel thread, Martha, a florist in Kent, struggled with Alistair’s vanishing acts, a missing wedding ring, a suspicious “father’s phone,” and a hospital crisis with Nala while Alistair was unreachable. She discovered a Ramsgate Paddy’s receipt that contradicted his story and, using a tracker, tied his movements to a cliff-top villa—Nina’s home. As Ash traced a distinctive pink soap box to Martha’s Garden, the two stories collided: the soaps came from Martha’s shop, and the man living with Nina was known there as Alistair, Martha’s husband. Ash and Jane widened the net, learning from Bar Amelie’s co-owner Jensen de Witt that Nick had never been an owner and had waged a vindictive sabotage campaign, and from Emma Greenlaw that Jonathan likely murdered her mother, Tara, and used a Tooting flat as a hub while texting from Tara’s phone to fake her departure.

Ash secretly visited Joe Kritner, who identified Nick from a photo as the “Silver Man” who had paid and coached him with lies before the push; Nina contacted police to review CCTV. When Nick abruptly vanished from Nina’s, Ring footage showed an anxious blonde visitor and then Nick leaving with a rucksack and doctor’s bag. Nina and Ash confronted Martha in Enderford, aligning their timelines and realizing Alistair/Nick had urged both women toward new ventures funded by their assets. They created a victims’ Facebook group, DON’T LET HIM IN, that drew in further witnesses: life-coaching marks, short-term dating thefts, stalking complainants like Kadija, and Jessica Bland, who reported a fresh assault and £20,000 extortion by “André.”

Martha lured Nick to Bangate Cove under the guise of revisiting their pavilion dream. In the disused pavilion, Ash, Nina, Emma, Laura with Lola, Sam and Joel Law, and other victims assembled to confront him. Nick—identified in testimony as Simon Smith, an indulged only child who had terrorized his family and used aliases—snapped, punching Emma and trying to escape. Sam and Joel restrained him and demanded the truth about their mother Amanda; seeing Jessica present and realizing multiple crimes were converging, Nick broke free, shoved Martha, fled across the beach, and ran into the sea. Despite desperate attempts by Sam and Joel and a full emergency response, he disappeared beneath the water; that night, news reported Simon Smith, 55, feared drowned and wanted for assault and extortion, with investigations reopened into Tara Truscott, Amanda Law, and conspiracy in Paddy’s death.

After the cove, Ash and Nina planned a reset: finding a partner to help run the restaurants, selling the house, and moving to a simpler apartment. A letter posted to Ash by Nick attempted a final destabilization by urging her to ask Nina for a hidden truth; Nina told Ash “everything,” which reframed Ash’s understanding of herself and solidified their bond as equals. Ash then noticed that Nick’s letter matched the font and layout of letters once sent to her by her former boss Ritchie Lloyd, implying a forged or connected origin designed to manipulate her earlier crisis. In the epilogue, a first wife in the Algarve—who admitted aiding Nick in impersonating Tara on CCTV, dismembering and dispersing Tara’s remains, and fabricating bar complaints—opened her door to Simon, only to step aside as plainclothes detectives moved in, choosing accountability and helping to end his flight.