‘Loss is the price we pay for love’
Dot Watson works at the Transport for London Lost Property Office. Every day, she diligently catalogues the objects found on buses, tubes and trains. She's the custodian of hundreds of black umbrellas, a surprising number of shoes and one mid-century sofa.
But it is not only the objects in her care that are lost, Dot is too. Ten years ago, her life veered unexpectedly off course and she has never quite recovered.
So when Mr Appleby comes in looking for a lost bag, something in the way he holds himself catches Dot off-guard. His late wife's purse was in the holdall, it was empty but he liked to keep it near. By the time the bag is handed in, the old man's details are no longer on file but Dot can't let it go. Determined to reunite Mr Appleby with his wife's purse, she examines the bag, gathers her clues and sets off to find him.
Dot knows a thing or two about grief. But it's possible, though she doesn't yet know it, that in helping Mr Appleby, she might be helping herself too.
