Natasha Linnet has a weakness for older men, preferably those with sufficient confidence to take her across their knees. The directors of old-fashioned wine merchants Hambling and Borse seem ideal for the task, and they want her to work for them. It's an offer too good to refuse, but she quickly finds that she is expected to give a great deal more than she had bargained for, to a great many more people and in a number of unexpected ways. Only the temptations being dangled in front of her make it possible to put up with what is being inflicted from behind.