44 Scotland Street

The first installment in a serialized novel, the story follows an intertwined cast of characters who live and work in Edinburgh's New Town, centering on the residents of 44 Scotland Street.

Pat, a twenty-year-old on her second gap year (the first having ended in unspecified disaster), moves into a shared flat at 44 Scotland Street. Her flatmate is Bruce Anderson, a surveyor in his mid-twenties with an en brosse (short, bristly brush-cut) hairstyle and an unshakeable conviction of his own attractiveness. Bruce manages the flat while their other two flatmates are away traveling and accepts Pat as a tenant after a brief interview. Pat also secures a job at the Something Special Gallery, run by Matthew Duncan, a well-meaning young man whose wealthy father bought him the gallery as a sinecure after a string of failed ventures. Matthew gives Pat vague instructions and has sold nothing since taking over.

On the landing across from Pat and Bruce lives Domenica Macdonald, a sharp-witted, middle-aged neighbor who becomes Pat's confidante and advisor. Domenica shares her own unconventional life story: She married into an Indian family that owned an electricity factory in Kerala, but her husband, Thomas Varghese, was accidentally electrocuted shortly before she had planned to leave him. She inherited the business and eventually returned to Scotland.

In the flat below, five-year-old Bertie Pollock lives with his parents, Irene and Stuart. Irene is a relentlessly ambitious mother who has taught Bertie Italian, pushed him through Grade six saxophone, and interprets his behavior through the psychoanalytic theories of Melanie Klein. Bertie, despite his extraordinary abilities, longs to be an ordinary boy with trains, rugby, and a uniform. His frustrations boil over in acts of rebellion: He writes Italian graffiti on the nursery toilet wall calling his teacher, Miss Christabel Macfadzean, a cow ("LA MACFADZEAN È UNA VACCA!"), and he sets fire to his father's copy of The Guardian. Miss Macfadzean suspends Bertie, and at the Floatarium, a sensory-deprivation facility, he erupts, shouting in Italian that he hates the language and the saxophone. Irene responds by enrolling him in psychotherapy with Dr. Hugo Fairbairn, though the sessions are largely consumed by Irene's own intellectual conversations with the therapist, leaving little time for Bertie.

At the gallery, Pat notices a painting that looks as though it could be by Samuel John Peploe, one of the celebrated Scottish Colourist painters of the early 20th century. When a man tries to buy it for the listed price of 150 pounds, Pat observes his barely concealed excitement and refuses the sale, suspecting the painting may be worth far more. Matthew is thrilled. Their circle debates the painting's authenticity at Big Lou's coffee bar, a basement establishment run by Big Lou, a self-educated woman from Arbroath who has read everything from Hegel to Habermas. After an attempted break-in at the gallery, Pat takes the painting to the flat and hides it in the hall cupboard.

Bruce, meanwhile, cuts corners on a property survey, lying to his employer, Raeburn Todd, about having inspected a roof space. Todd nearly catches him but is tripped up by his own confusion over two property addresses, and Bruce escapes exposure. Todd invites Bruce to the South Edinburgh Conservative Association Ball to partner his daughter Lizzie, secretly hoping they will develop a relationship. The ball is a memorably awkward affair attended by only six people. Bruce, who has forgotten to put on underpants under his kilt, endures an evening of excruciating self-consciousness while Ramsey Dunbarton, an elderly guest, delivers rambling anecdotes about North Berwick and Scotland's dukes. At the tombola, a raffle-style prize draw, Bruce contributes a painting he found in the flat's hall cupboard, not knowing it is the possible Peploe. Ramsey wins it.

When Pat discovers the painting is gone, she is outraged, but Bruce is unapologetic. She confesses to Matthew, who takes the news calmly. Together they trace the painting's path: Ramsey has donated it to a charity shop in Morningside, and the shop has sold it to a customer the staff identify as the crime writer Ian Rankin. They visit Rankin at his home, finding him in a whirlpool tub in his garden. Pat honestly tells him the painting might be a Peploe worth 40,000 pounds. Rankin graciously returns it without hesitation.

Throughout these events, Pat's feelings for Bruce undergo a painful arc. Despite recognizing his narcissism, she finds herself drawn to him. Her infatuation intensifies when Bruce begins seeing a new American girlfriend named Sally. The crisis comes when Bruce, having noticed Pat's feelings, proposes that she "share" him: He will keep seeing Sally but can "make you happy too." Pat is filled with revulsion and pulls away. That night, she enters his darkened room and stands over him as he sleeps, struggling with temptation, but turns and walks away. She notices that Bruce was awake and smiling. This is the moment she recognizes she is free. Pat's psychiatrist father later diagnoses Bruce with narcissistic personality disorder, noting he is not malevolent but destructive in how he treats others.

The painting's identity is finally resolved when Guy Peploe, Samuel Peploe's grandson and a dealer at the Scottish Gallery, examines it and pronounces it definitively not a Peploe. However, he detects evidence of an overpainting beneath the surface. Angus Lordie, a portrait painter Pat has befriended, offers to strip the overpainting at his studio. With Pat, Matthew, and Domenica present, Angus applies paint-stripper and reveals a painting by Jack Vettriano, the popular contemporary Scottish artist known for scenes of couples dancing on beaches. Angus estimates its value at around 100,000 pounds. However, the paint-stripper continues to act overnight, dissolving the Vettriano into abstract streaks of color. Matthew surprises everyone by laughing and forgiving Angus gracefully.

Several other threads reach their conclusions. Bruce decides to leave surveying for the wine trade but displays spectacular ignorance to Will Lyons, a wine trade contact arranged by a colleague, denouncing the Chardonnay grape while professing love for champagne and Chablis, both made from Chardonnay. Todd then catches Bruce having lunch with Todd's wife, Sasha, at the Café St Honoré and fires him on the spot, revealing he has kept evidence of the roof inspection lie. Big Lou receives a call from Eddie, a former flame who went to America years ago. He takes her to dinner and reveals he is married. Bertie, visiting the Rudolf Steiner School at Dr. Fairbairn's recommendation, meets Jock, a fellow prospective student who plays rugby, loves trains, and owns a penknife. They begin a blood-brotherhood ceremony, but Irene bursts in and snatches the knife away. Bertie feels a profound sense of loss at being separated from his first real friend.

The novel closes at Angus Lordie's flat in Drummond Place, where Matthew, Pat, Domenica, and Angus gather for champagne. The Vettriano has been destroyed and the painting's long journey has ended in colorful ruin, but the evening is marked by warmth, poetry, and the consolation of friendship. Angus recites an impromptu poem wishing for "love over Scotland, like tears of rain."