Desmond and Deirdre Doyle's silver wedding anniversary is drawing ever closer, and it falls to the couple's eldest daughter, Anna, to decide how best to commemorate the big day. No use asking her sister Helen, living in her London convent, or her brother Brendan, who has chosen exile on a bleak farm in the west of Ireland. But it is unthinkable not to have a party, even though for the Doyles, family occasions are more difficult than for most. And as the day draws nearer, so the tension mounts, until finally the guests gather at the party itself...