In the summer of 1997 Alec Valentine returns to the West Country house of his childhood to care for his gravely ill mother, Alice In San Francisco, his older brother Larry prepares to visit too, knowing it will be hard to conceal that his acting career is sliding towards sleaze and his marriage is faltering By contrast, Laszlo Lazar, the Hungarian exile whose play Alec is translating, seems to have it all Yet Laszlo cannot shake off his memories of the 1956 uprising For all four, the moment has come to assess the turnings taken and the opportunities foregone, the achievements and the failures, the point of it all