As friends, relatives and foes trickle in to pay their finalrespects to his mother Eleanor, Patrick Melrose finds himselfquestioning whether a life without parents will be theliberation he has so long imagined. Yet as the memorial serviceends and the family gathers one last time, amidst the socialniceties and the social horrors, the calms and the rapids,Patrick begins to sense a new current: the chance of some formof safety - at last.