Liam (Daryl McCormack), an aspiring young novelist, is hired to tutor the son of revered author JM Sinclair (a deliciously acidic Richard E Grant) and a formidable art dealer (Julie Delpy). But he finds that the Sinclair inner circle is a place where nobody but JM is permitted to thrive, and that the ownership of stories is a contentious matter.

The feature debut from accomplished TV director Alice Troughton is a neatly atmospheric piece, with the alienating affluence of the Sinclair house emphasising Liam’s powerlessness, and a brusquely formal piano waltz on the score that grows wilder and more dangerous as the film progresses. Unfortunately, it all rather stumbles with an overwrought final act that disintegrates under scrutiny and hinges on a key character’s unlikely ability to remember, verbatim, every word he has ever read.