Marina, a forty-year-old Russian woman, lives in a small village in South Leicestershire in England. Seven years ago she married Gregory, a village garage owner, a collector of Morris Minor cars and an Ipswich Town supporter. Marina met Gregory when he came to Russia to see Ipswich Town playing against Torpedo Moscow, and moved to England with her then five-year-old daughter in the hope of happiness and a secure future for her child. A journalist and a writer in her previous life, she now works as a local hairdresser and in her spare time writes for the parish magazine. Gregory loves her, and her daughter seems to flourish in a private school, but Marina doesn't feel happy and satisfied with her life - and can't really explain why. The feeling increases when she goes to London to meet Valentina, an old friend who is visiting from Moscow.