In the summer of 1936 the world is on the cusp of change, but there's little sign of it in rural Sussex. So when local girl Kitty Allen answers an advertisement looking for a 'good plain cook', she has no idea what she's letting herself in for.<BR>Her employer is champagne socialist Ellen Steinberg who believes in Marx and sunbathing in the nude. Then there's Ellen's young daughter Geenie, a bright, unhappy little thing, and Mrs Steinberg's lover, George Crane, who's said to be a poet - though he doesn't have a beard and doesn't seem to write much poetry.<BR>Ellen imagines that George spends his days labouring over their love story, but his attention lies elsewhere. As the temperature rises through the long, hot summer, the dream is falling apart.