Paul Sturgis is a retired bank manager who lives alone in a dark little flat He walks alone and dines alone, seeking out and taking pleasure in small exchanges with strangers His only relative, and only acquaintance, is a widowed cousin by marriage, to whom he pays ritualistic visits on a Sunday afternoon A chance encounter with a stranger - a recently divorced and demanding younger woman - shakes up his routine and when an old girlfriend appears on the scene, Sturgis is forced to make a decision about how (and with whom) he wants to spend the rest of his days