Sue's mother told her that she shouldn't marry Conrad—that the 25-year age gap between them would tell in the end. The end is now, apparently, approaching fast. Conrad, a famous painter, has decided that it would be good to die before he gets seriously old and so spends his time sorting out his chaotic life. Sue, teaching art at a local college, finds that she has plenty of male company—other people's husbands, ones she tells Conrad all about, who are just good friends to her. But there's one she, somehow, doesn't get round to mentioning.