An old woman lies in hospital with a broken leg, thinking back over a varied life which has taken her to Mexico, to wartime London, to Apartheid South Africa and to Wales. As an anthropologist she has been able to cast a quizzical eye over many societies. The love of her life was a rich businessman whose financial empire finally crashed leaving her living in poverty in his parents' house in Cardiff. Of her two sons one is an unmarried accountant living in London while the other, an unemployed ex-policeman, is sharing her home. However, she is in good spirits and manages to see her situation with humour and finally with a degree of optimism.