1950: a fatherless family lives in a frighteningly large house somewhere in Amsterdam-Zuid. The family consists of mother Zijdeveld, her 35-year-old son Charles, and her daughter Regina, who is two years younger. Then there is Jozef, the cousin who lives with them and has ambitions to become a writer. The relationship between mother Zijdeveld and Charles is not only special, but also very oppressive and artificial. Trapped in a world of books and literary quotations, mother Zijdeveld does not allow anyone to come between her and Charles. But then Charles announces that he wants to marry Mary, the pharmacist's widow who is suspected of murder...