Mike Perry has made a career out of honesty. His stand-up is confessional, his public image carefully candid - but Mike has always been better at performing the truth than living it. When his oldest friend Chris, a comedian of far greater and more troubled genius, dies suddenly, Mike returns to the Northern town where they grew up. He intends to stay for the funeral and leave. He ends up staying much longer. Lodging above the shop of Mona, the steadiest of their old schoolfriend group, Mike is drawn back into the past - and into the search for a final message Chris has hidden somewhere for him alone to find.