Sophia really needs to kill her husband. She’s been back and forth, contemplated killing herself, but has decided, no – her husband must die. There is no other way. No one would let her leave him – after all, Chris didn’t hit her. It was the small things – how he’d get up in the early morning and remind her she hadn’t emptied the bin. How he always expected her to clean the sheets. He seemed to think of their marriage as transactional, her as a fit-for-spec wife he was trying to keep in check for him and their daughter, Isla. She fantasised about murdering him, keeping her notes tidily put away underneath her bed. It’s only coincidence, that upon meeting up with her friends, Safa, Caoimhe, Ajola and Ella one evening, that they return to her home and find Chris lying there, dead.
Ajola knew she was destined for more – more than her meagre life as a primary schoolteacher. She had always been a bright girl, gifted in mathematics. But she’d made a few bad decisions in her youth, and without the right person to steer her through – Ajola was living with her regret every day. So, when she had turned up to meet her friends that evening, when they had discovered the dead body and realised they needed to dispose of it – Ajola was keen to help. To do something to change her, and all of their fortunes. Disgruntled by the events facing her life, Ajola’s grandmother had taught her the importance of spells to ward away the troubles in life – chiefly brought about by men. Ajola suggests the five of them perform a sort of séance to ensure Chris’ body is never found. Something in Ajola’s nature, which had always been different from the other girls, meant they took her seriously. And really, what other option did they have.
Caoimhe had only really ever cared about running. She had never been the daughter her mother yearned for – she hadn’t worn bows; she hadn’t ever taken any interest in “doing herself up nicely”. She didn’t really have any time for women, if that’s what it meant to be one and apart from her close friends, she kept herself at a distance from them. She got on much better with men, she thought, as she postured and posed politely for the ones at her running club, taking time to carve out a spot where she might finally be seen. Then Evie, a new woman comes along, with running times Caoimhe can only dream of. And when Sophia rings Caoimhe up to tell her that someone knows about what happened seven years ago, Caoimhe hardly cares except for the fact even more control is being wrestled out of her life.
Safa married Haaris when she was nineteen and he was twenty – it made all the sense, given their parents knew each other, they shared a similar culture. Safa didn’t really need a husband – a successful career woman, she quite comfortably manages the mortgage on their Hampstead mansion, and BMW – and she definitely doesn’t need Haaris given his proclivity for laziness. Haaris stayed at home, played on his games console, left Safa to work full-time and look after their two kids. It’s after they bury Chris that Safa realises, she needs a change. Seven years later, Safa is separated from her good-for-nothing husband (hurray) only he’s kept the Hampstead mansion and the car (both of which she is still paying for) while Safa has moved into a cramped flat with their two girls. But it’s fine, she thinks. She can bear with Haaris’ constant threatening messages, calling her all sorts of names – she can even see past him threatening to send a DeepFake (an AI generated, pornographic image) of Safa to her office. She’s gotten wind of it in good time and can warn her office.
What isn’t fine is Haaris dating some new woman, Danielle; moving her into Safa’s house and introducing her to his parents. It isn’t fair for him to scam some other woman – who, by all accounts, is far from the dutiful and present wife Safa pained herself to be. She’s got to warn Danielle. Safa agrees to meet with her at a local coffee shop where Danielle explains, before Safa has a chance to make her case, that Haaris has told Danielle everything. Danielle explains how Safa has lied and belittled him, how she never appreciated him in their marriage. After all, did she even imagine how emasculated he must feel for her to be the breadwinner? Had she even cared about his feelings at all?
Ella had first found herself attracted to Felix in the first few days after burying Chris, upon meeting him at one of her work dinners as a newly qualified barrister. He had been sharply dressed, tall figure and they had married in 2017 – but Felix’s job was stressful, and over the years left him leaving gaunt and aged. It’s not what Ella had signed up for. Felix was distraught at the news she was leaving him and began to break down to which Ella suggested he see a doctor or therapist – but that it wasn’t in her remit to fix him. Now years later, Felix shows up at her work, in front of her peers, asking her to give their marriage more time – after all, they shared a son together. Like Ella needed reminding. She hadn’treally wanted to be a mother, and it was just another thing she had to worry about. She had advocated for full custody of Benjamin, because she knew that was the right thing for her to do, but she had wanted Felix to fight her on it. She often screamed at her infant son – he would be much better off with his father. But she was stuck with Benjamin; stuck trying to shake of a marriage she didn’t want and stuck trying to shake the memory of what happened to her and her friends, seven years ago.
Sophia knew she had a stalker. Her name was Jill Caister, and she had been obsessed with Sophia since secondary school. Truthfully, Sophia had been obsessed with her too, at first – Jill was the only one who could keep up with Sophia, who excelled in academia, sports and as a budding novelist, she liked that Jill shared her love for all things Harry Potter. The trouble was, Sophia wasn’t sure Jill liked any of those things – but that she used them as an endless means to compete with Sophia. She’d sidle up to the boy Sophia liked, rush to finish the latest Harry Potter book before Sophia, declare she wanted to be a novelist and (unlike Sophia) had already finished her first novel. When Sophia befriends quiet Bethany, Jill decides that she is better friends with Bethany. Sophia’s mother tells her it’s fine, she will move away to a different school, but Sophia is not convinced that Jill will leave her alone. Sophia even suspects Jill had followed her to the University of Exeter. No one seems to believe her though – and years later when Jill appears in her local area, volunteering at her kid’s school, Sophia is incensed to see all the mothers befriend her. She didn’t have a kid, did anyone wonder what she was doing at the school? And no one finds it strange, that upon hearing Sophia’s husband has died, Jill’s husband Jared Winchester (no relation it seems, to actor Jared Padalecki, who plays Sam Winchester on Supernatural) has also gone missing. Shortly after Jill shows up in her life, Sophia begins to receive anonymous text from a number. Someone knows what they did.
Now in the present day, Sophia, Ella, Caoimhe, Safa and Ajola all meet to face their blackmailer on a zoom meeting. Despite donning a weird, wooden mask of the Greek god Pan, the individual is clearly a woman. She threatens the five friends with evidence that would place them at the scene of Chris’ death, seven years ago. And even if their alibis are solid, how long before the police find out about the suicide death of one of Ajola’s students. How long before Safa, Sophia and Ella’s kids are taken away, when they become ensued in a murder trial? The Pan agrees to keep their secret – if they agree to carry out the murder of a man, named Trent.
Sophia knows this is obviously her stalker, Jill. What other proof did they need? No, Safa thinks. Clearly this is Haaris punishing me for leaving him. Caoimhe doesn’t care, her thoughts on this weekend’s race and how she would beat Evie’s times, while Ajola silently wonders if it isn’t one of her students come to tell her what a crap teacher she is. Despite being a well-to-do lawyer, Ella doesn’t think of anything. She’s just tired.
Obviously, they can’t kill someone, and this ‘Pan’ is sending veiled threats. But soon after, the police arrive at Sophia’s house saying they’ve received an anonymous tip about the death of her husband. Sophia cannot bear the case reopening; cannot bear the satisfaction it will bring Jill. Meanwhile Ella battles with her deranged son, who in his latest tantrum headbutts Ella. She cowers and pushes him away, locks the infant gate behind her as she tries to escape up the stairs from her monster of a son. Benjamin seems to rip off the infant gate, before sliding backwards and having one end clip his scalp. He survives, but Ella feels herself slipping away. Pan’s proposition doesn’t feel so bad “She just had to do what needed to be done to keep moving forward. Maybe there was nothing metaphysical than murder.”
Ajola lures Trent out to her house on the pretence of getting a drink. He enters the room to find Ella, Sophia, Caoimhe and Safa all seated around. They somehow lure him into a strange tasting game, fixing a plastic bag over his head. Trent, seemingly thrilled to be in a room with so many agreeable women, happily plays along to what he’s decided is the most exciting sexual experience yet. But even he starts to catch on when they place him on a chair and tie together his hands. Only when he’s about to run out of air, they realise, God, they can’t possibly kill this man. What would be the point? They deliberate over the finer points of the situation – perhaps, their anger is misplaced. The real thing to do is to lure the Pan out to the house, on the pretence of showing her the job is done and confront her – if they’re going down, they’re going to take her with them. With this in mind, and Ajola already cooking up a new spell, they’re horrified to see Trent slip on the leg of his chair and crack open his head. Dead.
They lure the Pan out to Ajola’s home, where all five of them tell her she’s done for. They’ve recorded all their zoom meetings, and she’ll be going away for two murders. The Pan screams, “I’ve always hated you, Sophia!”, rips off her mask to reveal, not Jill, but Bethany.
Bethany, it seems is Sophia’s second stalker. She’s followed her and the girls for ages, and when her boyfriend (Trent) threatened to breakup with her it seemed convenient to blackmail Sophia and her friends into murdering him. She laments that Sophia left her lonely when she changed schools, and Sophia kindly assures her that it had nothing to do with her – actually, she quite likes Bethany. In the background someone utters, “I can’t believe we’ve killed someone over someone you knew when you were eight.” They tie up Trent’s body for ease of transport and submerge his mobile phone in water (“fire is the tool of man” Ajola warns). They keep Bethany at a distance, but really, she’s not anymore unstable than any of them.
With that behind them, Safa is delighted to find Danielle has broken up with Haaris and reclaims both her house and car from him. Caoimhe decides to put her reservations about Evie past and see her for what she is – an equal. They run (literally) off into the sunrise together. Ajola knuckles down as a teacher and gets her student across the line for a mathematics prize. Sophia enjoys a Jill-free life with the help of Bethany (they don’t kill her).
Meanwhile, Ella has just won her case of many years – a man, Eric, seeking damages in living expenses from his parents who brought him into this world against his will. Eric’s mother surprises Ella by showing up – she tells her motherhood is undefinable. There is no fixed role. With this, Ella reconsiders Felix. She’s put a lot of pressure on herself, and maybe we do need other people to get by even if it means surrendering up a bit of ourselves. Smiling to herself, Ella picks up the phone to dial Felix, renewed; reenergised at the weight leaving her chest. She’s ready to make her grand declaration to him – that’s when she gets the call. Felix has died.