The play concerns orphaned Jerry Artminster, who blackmails a criminal named Jock Masters by promising he will not reveal his identity if Jock agrees to impersonate the boy's mother in the Reading, Berkshire, (England) hotel where the boy lives.

[1] The play was first staged on 10 October 1967 at Wyndham's Theatre in London, directed by John Dexter, with Alec Guinness as Jock.

[2] Harold Hobson wrote in The Sunday Times, "in Mr Gray..the theatre has discovered a writer of quality and consequence.

[5][6] The New York City production was directed by James Hammerstein and starred Donald Pleasence as Jock.

It ends up by boring...and this despite a virtuoso performance by Donald Pleasence...Bud Cort, as a fey boy in search of a relationship, is also excellent.