MATURE. Adults only. Every named and speaking character is an adult, with an age on the page: Ada Okonjo 29, Elias Vane 38, Ngozi Okonjo 58, Ruth Vane 41, Mehmet Soyer 52, Dara Quinn 35, Tobias Crake 60, Paul Innes 33, and Grace Okonjo 22, who is in no sexual role. The youngest is 22 and no minor exists in the book in any role, memory, or plan. Themes: a debt of eighty-four thousand pounds bought by a collection firm for nine thousand two hundred and forty pounds, which is eleven pence in the pound; a guarantee signed at 22 without advice; an interest-only schedule at eight per cent, five hundred and sixty pounds a month, that never touches the capital; a county court fee of four thousand two hundred pounds; a bailiff who charges seventy-five pounds before he knocks and two hundred and thirty-five pounds when he comes in; legal aid six weeks away; a house at Elswick worth ninety-six thousand pounds that is the only asset in the estate; a solicitor who bills one hundred and eighty-five pounds an hour; and a father who died owing money nobody will explain. Debt, class, and Newcastle upon Tyne in the spring. Sexual content: Ada Okonjo 29 and Elias Vane 38 are adults and are not married to each other at any point. What each of them wants and what stops it is said out loud before anything begins in each of the three scenes, either of them can stop it at any point with one word, and the word is said once in the third scene and honoured immediately with no question afterwards. Nobody trades the bed for the ledger and no civic choice or ending is unlocked by any of the three scenes. They are written in full and specific to these two people and to one firm above a pawnbroker. They are not rewards: the first costs the March interest she cannot refuse, the second costs her the name in his mouth, and the third costs the sentence its ground. Chidi Okonjo, 62, dies off the page and is not depicted dying. No injury is depicted, no weapon appears, and no method of anything is described. No slur is written out. Fictional firm, street, law centre, court, and people. All music is instrumental, vocal playback is disabled, and lyrics are empty.