Gwilym avoids personal contact as much as humanly possible, despite the best efforts of his well-meaning but nosey next door neighbours.

He whiles away his time, pottering in the garden, learning the harmonica and writing letters to women serving long-term prison sentences in various jails around the world. Women that he knows he'll never have to meet.

When South Londoner Layla O'Dowd is released on early parole and suddenly shows up on the the doorstep of Gwilym's rural Welsh cottage out of the blue, his whole world is turned upside down.