Trading Secrets

In the mid-1990s, Nicola Pearson arrives at the Federal Bank in Sydney with a brief to design a new framework for monitoring the bank's trading risk. She has to earn the respect of the dealing room on both intellect and professional competence, above all from Tom Forrester, who heads the trading operation. He has only just come back from three years in London to take charge of the bank's trading activities.

Nicola's last marriage left her in a precarious position, and she now distrusts men and doubts her own judgment of them, though she is sure of her abilities when it comes to managing people at work. Her personal life is quiet and guarded, and she carries a secret that weighs on her. Tom is divorced too, and his marriage has left him jaded. Outwardly he seems to live at full speed, but Nicola is not the kind of woman he usually pursues, and yet something about her draws him in. Slowly he notices that she is hiding something. Could he be the one who eases her burden and changes the course of her life?