Norman 'N.V.' Standish (Michael Williams) was a brilliant student at Oxford University. After graduating, he wrote a notable book and started what looked like being a glittering career in the diplomatic service. Then, suddenly, he disappeared. Twenty years later, two of his fellow students, Mary Webster (Ann Bell) and her sister Louise Hobson (Jennifer Hilary), find him working in a restaurant in the Home Counties. They persuade him to come and live with them and try to talk him into writing again.