Mrs. Pennington-South has succeeded in coercing a handsome young man – Tristram – back to her home to have tea with her and her ill-tempered son, Cuthbert. What the shy, rather awkward Tristram doesn't realise is that he is, in fact, being presented as a possible suitor for Cuthbert. His mother's matchmaking arrangements, however, have become increasingly intolerable for Cuthbert, and as the tea progresses and the intimations and pressures are ratcheted up, Cuthbert finally reaches breaking point. Exasperated and angry, he decides that the time has come at last to confront his mother with the shocking truth that he knows can only break her heart: the open admittance of his heterosexuality.