One day, while unloading large bags of cement to resurface the garden path of their home, the father collapses from a heart attack and dies.

In their new roles as the parental figures in the family, Jack finds himself escorting Sue and Tom to and from school, while Julie takes up the cooking and cleaning duties.

Julie forms a relationship with an older man named Derek, whom Jack starts to view with jealousy and hostility.

Tom, attempting to remodel himself as a girl, takes up cross-dressing, then later regresses to an infantile state, sleeping in Julie's room in a crib and drinking from a bottle.

[6] Of the film, Roger Ebert wrote director Birkin "uses nuance, timing and Edward Shearmer's unsettling music to create an atmosphere in which outside values cease to matter, and life becomes a series of skirmishes between hostility and temptation.

There is a little of Lord of the Flies lurking here somewhere…[the film] leads us into a world where some secrets are hidden and others indulged, and there is no restraint on its dark impulses".

[7] In a more critical review, John Powers noted, "Though the young actors are terrific, the movie doesn’t yield its meanings easily.

It hints at many themes—the origins of gender roles, the triumph of nature over culture, the future of England itself—but preserves the hermetic density of a parable".