The play is set over three Christmas celebrations in the kitchens of three couples: Sidney Hopcroft, an ambitious merchant and his meek wife Jane; architect and adulterer Geoffrey Turner and his depressed wife Eva; and Ronald Brewster-Wright, a banker and his snob of a wife Marion. In terms of socio-economics, the three couples range from working class to upper class.

The first Christmas is set at the Hopcrofts’ house, which Jane is obsessively cleaning. Sidney hopes to persuade the others to invest in his growing business – although both Geoffrey and Roland are dismissive of the man behind his back. Sidney’s harsh treatment of Jane becomes apparent, as does the way she rises above it. It also becomes obvious that Geoffrey and Eva’s marriage is on the rocks and that Geoffrey sees in Roland an ally for helping him win a commission for a new shopping centre.

The following Christmas is spent at Geoffrey and Eva’s flat. Geoffrey’s career is sagging and Eva spends most of the act attempting to commit suicide in evermore desperate and domestic ways. Jane mistakes her attempts to gas herself for cleaning and takes over scrubbing the oven; the tablets Eva loses down the sink leads Sidney to offer to help with the plumbing; and when Eva tries to electrocute herself, Ronald thinks she’s trying to change the light bulb and takes over for her. In despair, she starts singing a Christmas carol as Geoffrey arrives with a doctor in tow. Amid all the chaos, Marion has been getting progressively sloshed.

The next Christmas after that, everyone gathers at Roland and Marion’s mansion, where Marion has locked herself in her bedroom to be comforted by alcohol. Geoffrey’s designs for the shopping centre have collapsed and, ironically, he is now dependent on Eva. Sidney and Jane have meanwhile made out like bandits as their scheme from two Christmases ago has paid off and Roland, who was dismissive of them in the first act, now has to court them to keep their business. Likewise, Geoffrey desperately needs them to employ him as an architect to keep his career alive. With the fortunes of all couples now completely reversed, Sidney calls the shots and makes everyone play games and – literally – dance to his tune.