The tale relates the story of two sisters, daughters of an Anglican vicar, who return from finishing school overseas to a drab, lifeless rectory in the East Midlands, not long after the World War I. Their mother has run off with another man, a scandal that is not talked about by the family, especially the girls' father, who was deeply humiliated and only remembers his wife as she was when they first met many years before.
Their new home is dominated by a blind and selfish grandmother called "Mater" and her mean-spirited, poisonous daughter Aunt Cissie; there is also Uncle Fred, who lives a solitary life. The two girls, Yvette and Lucille, risk being suffocated by the life they now lead at the rectory. In particular, Yvette's desperation is compounded by the fact that she has "borrowed" a little money from a charity fund that her family manages. Her relationship with both her father and aunt suffer: She sees her father as a mean-spirited and cowardly person for the first time when he reacts savagely to her petty crime.
