Bristol, the present. After a less than impressive performance on the football field, builder and amateur player Nick enjoys a pint and some coarse humour with his fellow players. Later he and best mate Tony visit a nightclub, where they chat up two women, Karen and Paula. But returning from the toilet they find their 'dates' have moved on. Nick spots Karen being groped on the dancefloor and intervenes, injuring his hand in the process.

Later, the team visits the hotel where Karen and Paula work. Nick waits for Karen outside, but she leaves with her boss and sometime lover, Charlie. Days later, he runs into Karen at a video shop and they end up watching together at her place, after which they make love.

On a building site, Nick drops a hammer when his hand goes numb. Karen joins him at the hospital. Later, he announces that the team is going on a trip to Gambia, and invites her to move in with him when he returns. She accepts.

Some time later, Nick suffers double vision, and arranges to see a specialist, who recommends glasses. Cooking a meal with Karen, he realises the numbness has returned when, without noticing, he burns his hand on a hot saucepan. Concerned, Karen does some research, and realises he might be suffering from Multiple Sclerosis. She visits the doctor, who admits it might be MS, but warns that, since the condition is stress related, telling Nick might make it worse. That night Nick and sees Karen getting out of Charlie's car and accuses her of having an affair, a charge she furiously denies.

Nick crashes a van when he finds he can't move his foot to brake. In hospital, he undergoes a series of tests. Karen becomes angry when she suspects he slept with another woman in Africa. But she rejects Paula's advice to leave him, and collects him from the hospital when he is discharged.

Nick finds a book about MS which Karen has hidden. Further tests confirm he has MS. Nick's distraught family visits from Scotland. After they leave, Nick and Karen argue when she suggests they move to Glasgow, which he interprets as an attempt to offload him onto his parents. Karen finds some solace in illicit sex with Charlie. Meanwhile Nick, his condition worsening, chastises his mates for their awkward and patronising behaviour around him.

Nick enjoys a period of remission and returns to work. But it doesn't last, and he soon finds himself restricted to a wheelchair. Tony, following Nick's request to give him 'a bit of stick', goes too far when he mocks his inability to satisfy Karen sexually.

At home, Nick confesses to Karen that he slept with other women in Africa. He tells her to go, but Karen is determined to stay and they fight. Leaving the flat, she stands outside in the rain while he watches her from the window. Even when he stumbles out and threatens to kill himself if she won't leave, she refuses to budge. Finally, he relents and they embrace.

Later, friends and family gather for a typically drunken celebration of Nick and Karen's wedding.