 Slice-of-life look at a sweet working-class couple in London, Shirley and Cyril, his mother, who s aging quickly and becoming forgetful, mum s ghastly upper-middle-class neighbors, and Cyril s pretentious sister and philandering husband. Shirley wants a baby, but Cyril, who reads Marx and wants the world to be perfect, is reluctant. Cyril s mum locks herself out and must ask her snooty neighbors for help. Then Cyril s sister Valerie stages a surprise party for mum s 70th birthday, a disaster from start to finish. Shirley holds things together, and she and Cyril may put aside her Dutch cap after all.