Maureen has her hands full at home and can't take care of her father William, who may be suffering from Alzheimer's. Her brothers - Alun, an alcoholic trumpet player, and John, an insensitive businessman - don't really want to help. William, a lifelong socialist, feels angry and resentful towards the British government which has abandoned him in his old age. Having been persuaded by his children to buy a council house in the booming 80s, he discovers that this selfsame government, which made such a virtue of home ownership some ten years earlier, now expects him to sell the property in order to pay for his care. Isolated in old age, Williams secretly decides to put into action a plan to get back at the system.

Based on the novel of the same name by William David Owen.

Set in the fictional village of "Ogw" in the valleys of south-east Wales. After her father Jack suffers a stroke Annie Mary Pugh is forced to take care of him but uses the circumstances to emancipate herself and find the courage to sing once again.

Edith is a hotel waitress, single and in her mid-forties, with a major infatuation on Maurice Silcox, the hotel's head waiter. But Edith becomes distraught when she learns that Maurice has been offered a more prestigious job at a luxury hotel. Maurice explains to Edith that he can only take the position if he is married. Unaware Edith's crush, Maurice proposes. She accepts and they set up a household for business purposes only -- complete with a photograph of a make-believe son. As Edith continues to live with this charade, her obsession with Maurice and the "son" grows, leading to a shocking and disturbing outcome!