East-End housewife Maggie Proud (Vanessa Redgrave) has two demanding children, a selfish mother-in-law, and an amiable but uncomprehending husband in Norman (Joss Ackland). When Christopher Shearway (Jonathan Cecil), the welfare officer at the factory where Norman Proud works, begins to take Maggie to theatres and art galleries as a “social experiment” it works too well.