The Mother offers a thoughtful and ironic reflection on familial imperfections. Sixty-something May and her older husband Toots visit London, where their son Bobby and his wife Helen lead frenetic lives. Bobby′s confused, frustrated sister Paula, a single mother lives nearby. Following Toots′s sudden death, May cannot face her old home in the north of England where years of inactivity seem to stretch out before her. She decides to stay in London, where Bobby and Helen offer grudging hospitality. Meanwhile, Paula is glad to have someone to share child-care responsibilities, but is not interested in seeing her mother in adult terms. As she eases into city life, May undergoes an emotional, creative and sexual awakening, finding herself attracted to Darren, the builder who is renovating her son′s house. But Darren is not only thirty years her junior--he is Paula′s lover.