For more than 10 years, Tom Putnam's wife, Marjory, has been a shut-in whose neuroses have left her fully dependent on Tom and his mother-in-law. Tom considers his unhappy condition self-inflicted, since Marjory’s condition was exacerbated by her discovery of his affair with a visiting poetess. When a letter from the poetess arrives telling Tom that he’d fathered her son, Henry, and that Henry will arrive by train in a few days, it’s clear change is coming whether Tom is ready or not.