Tough merchant seaman Pat Greevey returns to his family in Liverpool to find the key to a recent death.

Lancashire newlyweds Violet and Arthur Fitton are forced to postpone their honeymoon and move in temporarily with his parents.

Three long-married couples in northern England discover that their marriages are in fact invalid, causing much re-evaluation and chaos. This was the fourth television film version made by the BBC of this comedy by J. B. Priestley. It featured several actors repeating their rôles from the earlier 1951 version including Frank Pettingell, Helena Pickard and Eileen Beldon.