Lionel and Jean are browsing around in a music store. They have a long discussion about Johnny Ray's song, "Walking My Baby Back Home" which Lionel hates, but which triggers some sentimental memories. Jean tries to sing a bit of it and Lionel tells her to stop. She gets to the line "we started to pet and that's when I get her talcum all over my vest." This prompts Lionel to say it always puzzled him about why anyone would be out walking his baby wearing his vest until the day when he learned that "vest" was American for "waistcoat." In England, a vest is the equivalent of an undershirt in the United States. She reminds him that he used to walk her back to the nurses' quarters. Made him the envy of the battalion, he claims. There was something about nurses knowing everything about anatomy that gave them an odd sort of mystery.
All of a sudden Jean squats down behind one of the displays. Lionel is startled and asks her what she's doing. There's someone she doesn't want to see. Lionel looks down at her. She tells him to keep his head up. "Someone in blue," she tells him. At first he doesn't see anyone in blue and he bends down to tell her so. She tells him again not to look at her. Now she wants Lionel to "sidle" out and to run for it as they near the door. He wants to know what they do then -- "split up and make contact in Prague?" They head towards the door and just as Jean is about to leave he tells her to stop. She still has a cassette in her hand and would be accused of shoplifting if she were to walk out. Apparently this attracted the attention of the woman Jean didn't want to see because she walks over to Jean and embraces her. Jean looks as though she's delighted to see her.
The three of them move on to Jean's garden where tea is being served. The woman, who turns out to be Jean's former sister-in-law, Penny, is quite a chatterbox. She says to Lionel "lovely to meet you, Leslie." He corrects her. Within three sentences she asks "Do you have a garden, Leslie?" He doesn't correct her. He says he lives in a flat and mows the windowbox. Just as quickly Penny is on to another subject. She phoned to tell Jean she was coming into town but Jean wasn't home. How long have they known each other? Penny wants to know. Lionel's face breaks out into a smile. "Ah, well..." he begins. But Jean interrupts with "only a few months." She tells Penny that there are strawberries in the fridge and asks Lionel if he'd come in the house and give her a hand.
They're in the kitchen and she's chopping strawberries. He wants to know why she told Penny they had known each other for so short a time. She says that since it was her late husband's sister and since they'd known each other even before she was married she thought it would look funny to tell her that they had met 38 years ago. She asked whether Lionel had told his wife about her. He said he didn't. Lionel observes that Penny may go on a bit, but he doesn't understand what led to all that "nonsense" at the record shop. Jean says that ever since her husband died, Penny has made it her mission in life to feel sorry for her, always referring to her as "poor Jean. He thinks they ought to both tell the same story. "Where did we meet?" he wants to know. Jean tells him to make it up as they go along. And one more thing, she cautions him, if Penny asks them to spend the weekend at her home, tell her no. Lionel says that suits him fine. He doesn't like spending the night in strange houses because when you get up in the middle of the night to go to the loo you never know which door to open.
Lionel hadn't even taken his seat when Penny asks where they met. On the fly, he says "on the dodgems at a fairgrounds." He looks almost as surprised by his answer as Jean does. Penny inquires about Judith and Jean tells her that she's fine. Even though, Penny shakes her head and says "poor Judith." Jean rolls her eyes. "I smashed into the back of her," Lionel says, still with his mind on the dodgems. Penny has a wonderful idea: why don't they come down to her house and spend the weekend? Lionel starts to tell her "we'd like to, but..." Jean interrupts by telling her they'd love to come. Once again, Lionel is puzzled by Jean. Apparently he's some kind of saint where she's concerned because he says nothing to contradict her.
Penny has gone home and Jean and Lionel are cleaning up in the kitchen. Jean's stacking the dishes in the dishwasher from front to rear. Lionel tells her it only makes sense to do it from rear to front. She tries to pick a fight with him. Apparently he said "why?" with an attitude when he questioned what went on with Penny. She said that Penny is the only family she really has and she's never anything but well-intentioned. Lionel said it was probably a good thing that she said they'd go. Jean feels guilty because Lionel didn't even complain about being recruited for the occasion. She says she'll phone Penny later and tell her that Lionel has been called to a polar expedition and wouldn't be able to make it. That may be a little transparent, but she's willing to do it. She's hoping he'll protest and say he'll go, but he makes no attempt to do so. It's not as though she needed him there, he says. She does need him to go, she admits. "With a chap in tow, I'd be less of a "poor Jean'" He pretends to take offense at her thinking of him as a sort of trophy, to which she replies if she wanted a trophy she'd have taken someone 20 years younger. Since she has no such person (how quickly she forgets) she's only got the one choice. He hopes they can sustain this decepton about having met only a few months ago. Jean tells him he wasn't so bad at deception -- he did pretty well with the story about the dodgems.
Penny and her husband, Stephen, are alone in the dining room setting the table for lunch. Penny again goes on about how brave Jean is being. She comments about how neither Lionel nor Jean seem to be dodgems kind of people. She wants to know if Stephen remembers where they met. She wants to know what Stephen thinks of Lionel. She wants to know what Lionel does for a living. She asks him all these questions but never gives him a chance to answer. And to put the icing on the cake she tells him to be sure not to probe, just let the conversation take its course. He says that's what he usually tries to do.
Lionel and Jean are still upstairs. Lionel opens a door, closes it and takes a bit of elastoplast (a bandaid) and puts it above the doorway. Jean comes out of her room and sees this. She asks what he's doing and he tells her this makes it easy for him to find the bathroom in the middle of the night. She fears someone will see it. He tells her that no-one would accuse a guest of putting that over the door. He's afraid of wandering into someone's room in his pajamas. Penny calls up that lunch is ready and they start to head downstairs. Before they go, however, Lionel says he doesn't want to talk about his book for fear he'll bore them to death. She observes that she's able to see the elastoplast from all the way across the room. "Only because you know it's there," he tells her.
Lunch is over and the four of them are seated in the living room. Penny persists in telling Lionel what a struggle it must have been, poor Jean, all alone raising Judith for all those years. Lionel tells her he knows all this because he and Jean have done a lot of talking -- they go way back. He catches himself when he realizes he's nearly been caught in a lie -- it only seems like a long time. Penny still can't figure out what they were doing on the dodgems in the first place. "Driving around," says Jean. Penny tells her that was such a desperate thing to do -- going alone to a fairgrounds like that. She goes on and Jean snaps at her once, but Penny continues on about how miserable Jean must have been. Stephen wants to know if anyone wants some more coffee but Penny completely ignores him and continues on about what a tragedy it was to have everything going for her and to suddenly have that all taken away: a wonderful husband, a beautiful daughter.... Suddenly Jean blurts out: "Lionel's a psychiatrist!" It seems to work because Penny's attention immediately turns to Lionel. She finds it fascinating. "It's just a job, really," says St. Lionel. She wonders whether or not Lionel has been any help to Jean professionally. He answers he always hoped he would have been, but sadly, no. Jean says they were going to take a walk in the garden. Penny tells them to go ahead and take that walk --- she and Stephen will do the dishes. And that reminds her: she always stacks the dishes from the back to front, does Lionel think that's significant? It just means that she's a very rational sort of person, he says. Jean glares at him.
As they walk through the garden they discuss what just happened inside. Lionel can't believe she told them that he was a psychiatrist. You didn't want me to talk about the book, she tells him. He reminds her that no-one even asked him what he did and then suddenly she just came out with this story. She did it, she said, because she wanted to change the subject -- Penny just goes on and on. He tells her she could have done something a little more simple, like throwing a chair through the window. Penny always reminds her of those "bloody awful" years after her husband died. She says she loved him -- not like she loved Lionel when they were younger -- but she did love him. Lionel tries to see the bright side:
LIONEL: Well, at least I didn't have to prove it. If you'd have said I was a fire-eater she would have produced a box of matches and asked for a demonstration.They decided to go back. They agreed that there would be no more lies. They would stick with the two they've already got.
JEAN (incredulous): As if I would have said you were a fire-eater.
LIONEL: As if you would have said I was a psychiatrist.
Stephen and Lionel are alone, looking out at the garden. It is a beautiful night, they both agree and it prompts Lionel to say that he's glad he came home. He stutters a bit trying to explain it and Stephen points out that he and Jean seem a bit ill at ease. He thought he knew why -- it seemed to him that they have known each other for a lot longer than they let on. Lionel asks how he figured that out. "To be honest, the dodgem thing never really passed muster." Lionel asks him if Penny knew, but Stephen laughs and says, no "Bless her heart, she only talks."
He assures Lionel that he will keep his secret and if the subject comes up he'll steer it in another direction -- like Lionel's being a psychiatrist. I'm not sure why, since Lionel was being so honest with Stephen at that moment, he chose not to tell him the truth, but he went along with the psychiatrist story. Stephen says that psychiatry is a fascinating subject. Lionel says "yes, it must be."
STEPHEN: Anyway, how long have you been a psychiatrist? Several years I'd suppose.
LIONEL: Oh yes, several years. But, you know, sometimes it only seems like a couple of hours.
Meanwhile Penny and Jean are in another room. Penny still hasn't stopped with the "poor Jean" routine. This time she's disappointed that Jean met Lionel so late in life. When Penny tells Jean that "Companionship can be a wonderful thing in it's own way," she forces her to tell her third lie. Jean looks her straight in the face and tells her that she thinks that she should know that the relationship between her and Lionel goes way beyond companionship. This brings a broad smile to Penny's face: "Does it?" Jean says yes. "You mean?" Again, Jean says yes and blushes.
Penny is very pleased for her -- she thinks it's wonderful. But since Jean didn't say before now, she automatically put them in separate rooms. Jean has a look on her face that makes you know she just realizes what she's done. "No, that's fine," she says. Penny insists that it is not fine and she is going to rearrange things accordingly. Lionel should have known better than to leave Jean alone with Penny.
Later in the evening they are in the middle of a very boring conversation. Lionel yawns. 
Stephen looks at his watch and is surprised at the lateness of the hour. Penny is ready for bed. Not wanting to be alone in the room with Lionel, Jean tells everyone she isn't at all tired. She hopes everyone will stay awake, but they're having none of it. Lionel reminds her it is one o'clock. Defeated, she jumps up as though someone had just stuck her with a pin and speaks in double-time -- I'm off then, good night and she ran out of the room. Penny asks Lionel if Jean were under some sort of strain.
Everyone else says goodnight. Lionel is upstairs, walking to what he thought was his room. Jean opens her door, walks out into the hallway and tells him "we're in here." He wants to know what she means. Penny changed things round, she says. He wants to know why she did that. Jean doesn't know. He says he'd better have a word with her. "No," Jean says, as she blocks the door. She confesses to Lionel that she told Penny they slept together. She asks him to stop smiling -- she didn't intend for things to turn out this way. He seems to be getting quite a kick out of watching Jean squirm. He can't believe that Jean always seems to rise to Penny's bait. "So here we are." Yes, here they were. He says that it'll be fine -- after they wash up and go to bed, he'll sneak into his original room. Jean doesn't want him to do that -- you can't tell who's going to be in that room. He tells her he doesn't believe they are taking in paying guests. But she convinces them that Stephen and Penny might have given them their room and they might be sleeping in separate rooms. He says he isn't sleeping on the floor. She says she didn't expect him to sleep on the floor -- she'll sleep in the chair. "No, you won't," he says. She starts to remove a blanket from the bed. He asks what she's doing. She tells him he'll need a blanket. He says he's not sleeping in the chair either. He says that against the grain of that day's behaviour they are going to act like grown-ups -- it is a bed made for two people. He turns his back to Jean and takes off his coat. She takes this opportunity to leap out of her robe and into bed before he can turn around. He realizes why she tore upstairs like a sprinter. He says he'll change in the bathroom, even though she offers to hide her eyes.
Lionel comes out of the bathroom wearing pajamas and carrying his clothes. At the same time Stephen comes out another door. He sees Lionel and wonders if everything is okay. Lionel explains that he went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and figures he might as well change his clothes in there too.
Lionel returns to the room. He takes off his robe and steps out of his shoes. Jean looks terrified. He gets into bed. Jean makes some small talk -- bringing up an old conversation they had in the record store about who sang what song. After some adjusting here and there they're ready to go to sleep. He tells her "If I move suddenly during the night...." Yes, she says...
"It'll be a cramp." She'll try to remember. She tells him it's kind of funny really. He supposes that unders the circumstances that's the appropriate word to use. She apologizes to him and he tells her it's nice really. She agrees. "companionship." They agree that that's a patronizing word. Lionel wants to know if they should be smiling in the morning. "Well we have slept together before," she reminds him. Yes, but Penny has no idea it was 38 years ago. He looks at her and says "seems like yesterday." She tells him that no, it doesn't. "No, it doesn't," he admits. He turns the lights out. "Old habits," they both say. They turn towards one another: "Hello again," he says. "Hello, again," she responds.