The scene is the bedroom of a house in provincial England, where a senile old woman lies on her deathbed, attended by her two-middle-aged daughters. One of them, Jean, has stayed at home and has borne the brunt of her mother's illness, from the first stroke to her present almost total incapacity. The younger sister, Rita, has long since moved away and returns now, grudgingly, only out of a sense of duty. Jean, childless and rather slovenly, is unhappily married to a travelling salesman; while Rita, attractive and well dressed, is the happily married mother of three children. Their differences, and the long-standing resentments which these have bred, pour out with bitterness and black humour as the two squabble at their mother's bedside - sure that the old woman is unable to comprehend what they say. That she does - and what her final reaction to their bickering is - constitutes the ironic heart of the play, and provides a telling comment on the power of the dying to continue their sometimes baleful hold on the lives of those who survive them.
