After an evening of trouble 19 year-old Jonny sets out to find a girl who used to be the best friend of his sister, his dancing partner, who died in care Instead he finds Sophie West, old and suffering from senile dementia She lives alone in a squalid gentility, her only companions a houseful of cats Reluctantly he finds himself taking responsibility for this dotty old woman as her past intertwines with the present and some solutions emerge