In the Prince of Wales Hotel and the shabby terraces and tearooms of Westbourne, retired lives run their course — all, in their different ways, anticipating a crisis. Mrs Oddicott, proprietor of a drapery shop; Deirdre Fount, her daughter, painfully joining her mother's battle against individuality and change; Major Carpenter, so obsessively grieving for the death of a friend that he condones one final deception from his loyal wife; rich Miss Violet Prug, sustained in her wheelchair with the view from her balcony and a succession of Regency romances.