After being left by Mr Mackenzie (and not the other way around) Julia faces facts. Once glamorous and sought-after she is now down-at-heel after a string of unsuccessful affairs and leads a jaded, faded life in a tawdry Paris hotel. Then the maintenance cheques stop and she is forced to change her circumstances. She makes a decision: to return to London to her paralysed mother and worthy, martyred sister. It is to be a new leaf and a new life. But standing on her own is more difficult than she thought - she is restricted by the very existence she has created. After Leaving Mr Mackenzie is a brilliant, yet brutal, portrait of a woman struggling to retrieve both life and love.