Shirley Booth won the 1953 Best Actress Oscar for her role as Lola, an ageing woman dealing with loss: the loss of "herself" and her dreams twenty years before, and the recent loss of her dog, Sheba - in effect her replacement for a child.

Burt Lancaster plays Doc, Lola's husband; an ex-alcoholic dwelling on his belief that he was forced into marriage, due to Lola's pregnancy which was subsequently lost.

When a young college student named Marie rents a room in their house, Doc feels a kind of passion that he has not felt for decades. However, her arrival only emphasises the failings of Lola and Doc...