Paul Bland is a balding wine snob who works at a cheap wine shop, and his attractive wife Mary is a nurse who is routinely groped by hospital patients. They bemoan their status, and dream of opening a restaurant. A loving but exceptionally prudish couple, they sleep in separate beds and disapprove of sex, except for "a little hugging and kissing". When Paul is fired, they are left with barely enough money to get by, and despair that they will ever realize their dream. Their plight is exacerbated by the fact that they live in an apartment building that is a regular site of Swinging (sexual practice) parties, which they despise.