Sue’s mother told her that she shouldn’t marry Conrad — that the 25-year age gap between them would tell in the end. The end is now, apparently, approaching fast. Conrad, a famous painter, has decided that it would be good to die before he gets seriously old and so spends his time sorting out his chaotic life. Sue, teaching art at a local college, finds that she has plenty of male company — other people’s husbands, ones she tells Conrad all about, who are just good friends to her. But there’s one she, somehow, doesn’t get round to mentioning.