It is set in 1980s Britain and examines the impact of Thatcherism on personal relationships within the family of a junior government minister after her father's death.

Hare states that its title refers to a nun's feeling of ecstasy on being received by God at the moment of her death,[5][6] rather than the Protestant concept of the Rapture.

Estranged sisters Isobel and Marion are forced to reunite when their father dies and they must decide how to handle Katherine, their young, alcoholic, mentally unstable stepmother who has been left nothing but the rural home in which they were raised.

Isobel has grave misgivings about the plan, but finally agrees to it when Marion convinces Irwin of its potential success.

Before long, the strain of running the expanded business causes a deterioration in Isobel's relationship with Irwin, who is becoming increasingly dependent upon her, while at the same time Katherine's tenuous hold on sanity begins to unravel.

Marion and Tom arrive and an argument begins when Katherine suddenly introduces her idea that she would like to join Isobel's small design firm.

Rhonda leaves for the shower and Isobel reveals that Katherine has stabbed one of the firm's clients and so has had to be put into a rehab clinic.

He tells them how Isobel left the cinema halfway through the film and took a spur-of-the-moment holiday to Lanzarote, before returning to care for Katherine.