The novel is set in 1943 in the fictional town of Thames Lockdon (based on Henley-on-Thames), and largely follows the experiences of Miss Roach who lives in the Rosamund Tea Rooms, a guest house, having left London during the Blitz.

The opening sequence describes London as a great monster respiring, drawing workers into the city through its lungs in the morning and expelling them in the evening.

Mr Thwaites, revealed to be a Nazi sympathiser, insists that Miss Roach is a 'friend of the Russians', is shown to be overbearing and a bore and forces the shared meals the guests partake in to be conducted in an oppressive atmosphere.

Miss Kugelmann moves into the Rosamund Tea Rooms, charms Mr Thwaites and there soon begins a sort emotional struggle between the two spinsters.

The poet John Betjeman said in a contemporary Daily Herald review, that "I think Mr Hamilton is one of the best living novelists, and that this is the best book he has yet written.