The Whittakers are a family who seem to depend on tension and trauma. Colonel Whittaker is a former philanderer who now takes any and every opportunity to annoy his repressed and uptight wife, while their daughters, Marion and Hilda, are both highly strung and prone to meddling. Into this explosive mix enters John, their only son who has returned from the continent. However, the family is shocked to find that he has also returned with a wife, an older, glamorous divorcee with a scandalous past.