Everyone is meant to look forward to retirement from the Civil Service: the pension, the authority finally confirmed, the right to be listened to.

William’s father certainly does. He imagines a late life of order, respect, and cultivated pleasures — if only his family would fall into line. William, the fourth son and habitual afterthought, has spent years absorbing his father’s jokes and his brothers’ neglect.

When the family is unsettled by death, divorce, and quieter forms of damage, father and son are pushed into proximity. What emerges is not reconciliation, exactly, but a wary, unexpected accord — a rhythm found between disappointment, endurance, and the stubborn desire to be understood.